Nepal take close win from Namibia

Nepalese vice-captain Bardan Chalise's dominating innings of 69 set his side up for a 10-run victory over Namibia in their Plate Championship match at the ICC Under-19 World Cup match at North Harbour Stadium at Auckland today.

Nepal scored only 137 runs, of which 15 were extras, and the only other double figure score on the card was 13 by Kanishka Chaugai.

As reflected in the scorecard all the Namibian bowling was tight but the real destroyer of the Nepal innings was the run out curse which has probably been the prevailing problem for most sides at the tournament. Four run outs occurred in the innings, three of them in the top order.

Paul Steyn, the left-arm spin bowler, took two wickets for 23 runs from his 10 overs.

Namibia got off to a good start but at 86/2, the rot set in well and truly and the next eight wickets fell for only 41 runs, and the last six wickets fell for 14 runs.

Hugo Ludik, the Namibian No 3 batsman top scored with 33 runs but Binod Das and Lakpha Lama tore through the innings taking three wickets each, Das for 21 runs and Lama for 23.