Asian Games 2010: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 saved from embarrassment as they reach the semi-final in T20 cricket tournament
The debutante sport, cricket in the Asian Games 2010 was near to have a shocking result as Nepal gave a tough fight to Sri Lanka for a place in the semi-finals.
The Guanggong International Cricket Stadium at Guangzhou in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/China-c40996 resounded with cheers as Nepalese bowlers nearly pulled out a shocking result but luck was not on their side as Sri Lanka won the match by two wickets.
Nepal won the toss and decided to bat first. The Sri Lankan bowlers looked comfortable on the pitch as they restricted the Nepalese top order to three runs for the loss of two wickets. The top scorer for Nepal was http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gyanendra-Malla-c61015 who hit a fantastic 30 off
30 balls smashing four boundaries and a six. Whereas the other, only double figure batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Paras-Khadka-c80740 scored 18 runs off 24 balls.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jehan-Mubarak-c66822 took three wickets with Dilhara Lokuhettige scooping up two wickets.
Sri Lanka started off very shaky as the Nepalese bowlers ripped right through the Lankan top order. Sri Lanka’s opener Jeevanth Kulatunga was the top scorer and hit 20 runs off 20 balls smashing a six and two boundaries.
The Nepalese men had hopes of going through to the quarter finals when Kulatunga’s wicket was taken and the middle order of Sri Lanka kept on tumbling down thereafter. However, the nail biting finish came off as the tail-enders Dilhara and Isuru Thilakaratne
shared a partnership that dashed Nepal’s hopes for a win.
The eighth wicket partnership of 14 runs and ninth wicket partnership of 17 runs hampered Nepal to give an embarrassing result to the Sri Lankans.
Nepal was denied an epic victory as an unbeaten http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sajeewa-Weerakoon-c87976 (13 runs) and Kaushal Lokuarachchi (9 runs off 18 balls) steered their team to the semi-finals.
Nepal’s fighting bowlers included Basant Regmi who took two wickets off 13 runs, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Amrit-Bhattarai-c44128 and Paras Khadka who also notched two wickets each.
Sri Lanka joined http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 in the semi-finals. The semi-finals group is now complete with the seeded teams eyeing the gold medal.
Sri Lanka would be facing Bangladesh tomorrow in the first semi-final whereas Afghanistan would be clashing against Pakistan Thursday evening.
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