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By Peter Della Penna in Derry, Northern Ireland

Scorecard powered by New Inning Foundation I Ball-by-Ball Commentary

A steady knock from Naresh Budhaayer guided Nepal U-19 to an insurmountable total as they defeated USA U-19 by 99 runs at Limavady CC on Tuesday afternoon at the 2011 ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Limavady, Northern Ireland. Budhaayer was named Man of the Match after top scoring with 76 in Nepal’s total of 264 for 9. USA’s loss, combined with wins by Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Namibia, meant that USA finished seventh and failed to qualify for the 2012 ICC U-19 World Cup in Queensland, Australia.

Nepal won the toss and elected to bat in perfect conditions in Limavady. USA took wickets at regular intervals to begin the match with opener Sagar Pun caught behind off Salman Ahmad for 1 and fellow opener Fajlur Rahman giving a return catch to Hammad Shahid for 26 to make the score 45 for 2 in the 11th. Nepal U-19 captain Prithu Baskota was caught at midwicket for 2 off Shahid and Pranay Suri had Rajesh Pulami Magar LBW for 16 to make it 78 for 4 in the 23rd.

Unfortunately for the third time in the tournament, USA then allowed their opponent to produce a century stand to regain control as Budhaayer and Pradeep Airee teamed up to add 113 for the fifth wicket. Budhaayer was particularly brutal to USA’s bowlers once he crossed 50 as his last 26 runs came up in only 12 balls while it took him 83 deliveries to get to his half-century. Budhaayer was finally stumped off the bowling of Ahmad but by that point Nepal had started to run away with the match.

After Rahul Vishvakarma got out for 9, Nepal began a full-fledged sprint when Krishna Karki arrived at the crease. Karki scored 45 in 17 balls including three fours and four sixes as Nepal scored 63 runs for the loss of two wickets in the batting power play. Airee fell to Shahid for 57 in the 47th to make it 214 for 7 but Karki continued his onslaught until he got out with three balls to go in the innings with the score at 262 for 8. Bhuvan Karki was run out for a duck off the next ball but two more runs were added to Nepal’s total off the final two balls.

Ahmad once again bowled a solid spell for USA, finishing with 3 for 44 in 10. Shahid also bowled superbly to take 3 for 32, but couldn’t finish his allotment after being forced to leave the attack two balls into his eighth over immediately after taking the wicket of Airee when was reprimanded by the umpires for a third time for running into the danger area in his follow through.

USA’s chase never got going when Cameron Mirza and Abhijit Joshi fell LBW without scoring on back to back balls in the first over. Left-arm seamer Avinash Karn was the one who did the damage and it put USA into a massive hole they were never able to dig themselves out of. Greg Sewdial was the next to go, LBW for 4 to a ball that kept low from medium pacer Krishna Karki to make it 15 for 3 in the sixth.

Amarnauth Persaud had been dropped from the lineup in exchange for Gurpreet Sandhu so it meant that Suri was promoted up the order to number five where he put on a 63-run stand with Taylor. Taylor brought up his 50 in 53 balls but got out in shocking fashion only four balls later for 52. Facing the off-spin of Baskota, Taylor elected to leave one alone that went straight on and hit off stump. Six balls later, Suri was caught slogging to long on for 13 and USA was 78 for 5.

Jodha Singh was dismissed without scoring when Baskota pulled off an Angelo Mathews inspired catch at long on to give Vishvakarma his first wicket. Shayan Abdulghani provided a brief flurry of scoring with three sixes before he was out LBW missing a sweep to Baskota for 21. Ahmad took his time scoring 38 before he was bowled by Vishvakarma’s left-arm spin to make it 161 for 8 in the 43rd. Two balls later Shahid was caught at long on by Baskota to net Vishvakarma his third. Vishvakarma wrapped up the match seven balls later by clean bowling Mital Patel and USA was all out for 165 in 44.1 overs. Vishvakarma’s 4 for 24 allowed him to finish tied with Canada seamer Manny Aulakh for the most wickets in the tournament with 21.

In the other matches of the day, Papua New Guinea defeated Ireland by five wickets after bowling out the hosts for 155. Afghanistan bowled out Canada for 71 before winning by eight wickets. Namibia scored 314 for 5, the highest single innings score in the tournament, before winning by 109 runs and Scotland defeated Vanuatu by 130 runs to claim the tournament title. Nepal finished second, Ireland third, Afghanistan fourth, PNG fifth, Namibia sixth, USA seventh, Canada eighth, Kenya ninth and Vanuatu last. Namibia, USA and Canada all finished with identical 4-5 records, but Namibia took the last World Cup berth based on a superior net run rate.

At the post tournament closing ceremony, Duncan Allan of Kenya was named Player of the Tournament. Allan finished tied for second on the runs list with Steven Taylor as both players had 455 runs along with two centuries. Allan also had the most wickets for Kenya and tied for 12th overall in the tournament with 14 wickets bowling medium pace.