Pallekele (Sri Lanka): Ravindra Jadeja took a three-wicket haul as India kept Nepal to 178/6 in 37.5 overs before rain caused interruption and led to the entire ground being covered in the Asia Cup Group A match at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Monday.
On a pitch that aided spinners more, Nepal put up a much-improved batting display after being skittled out for 104 against Pakistan last week. Wicketkeeper-batter Aasif Sheikh was brilliant in his 58 off 97 balls, laced with eight fours.
Nepal were also aided by some erratic bowling by India and some sloppy work in fielding, leading to catches being dropped and plenty of misfields happening. Jadeja gave India slender control with 3-35 in nine overs while Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur had two and one wicket respectively.
After India elected to bowl first, Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli dropped catches of Kushal Bhurtel and Sheikh on successive deliveries. Bhurtel had another escape when Ishan Kishan dropped a straightforward chance off Shami in the fifth over.
Bhurtel and Sheikh made the most out of the Indians’ shelling chances by carting boundaries off fuller deliveries with superb timing while countering the short-ball challenge from the pacers with aplomb via pulls.
India finally had a breakthrough in the last over of power-play when Thakur got a slight away movement and got Bhurtel to nick behind to Kishan. With spinners coming in, it led to stemming of boundary flow for Nepal and resulted in Bhim Sharki chopping onto his stumps off Ravindra Jadeja.
The left-arm spinner then found some turn to have Rohit Paudel caught sharply at first slip and Kaushal Malla miscuing a catch to mid-off. But Sheikh marched forward, pulling, flicking and driving with ease to reach his fifty in the 28th over.
His vigil was ended in the 30th over when his attempted flick took a leading edge to cover off Siraj. The pacer got success in his next over when Gulsan Jha nicked behind. Dipendra Singh Airee and Sompal Kami hit a couple of boundaries before rain, which was predicted, interrupted proceedings, with lots of grey clouds overhead.
Brief scores:
Nepal 178/6 in 37.5 overs (Aasif Sheikh 58, Kushal Bhurtel 38; Ravindra Jadeja 3-35, Mohammed Siraj 2-46) against India
(IANS)
