LUCK IS STILL IN NEPAL'S FAVOUR

Nepal booked its place in the Plate Championship final of ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia on Tuesday with a thrilling four-run victory over Namibia at Johor Cricket Academy. Namibia was set a target of 144 runs to win after the game had been reduced to 34 overs a side due to rain early in the day. And the Africans almost got there with Raymond van Schoor (48) and Louis van der Westhuizen (33) doing most of the good work. But this is a highly polished and accomplished Nepal side, particularly in the bowling and fielding departments and, as usual, the reigning Plate champion did not give much away to the batting side. Captain and all-rounder Paras Khadka, having earlier scored 44 with the bat, added two wickets with the ball and as the game went into the final stages, the pressure built on the Namibians. Raj Shreestha broke a crucial 35-run partnership between van Schoor and Keady Strauss in the dying moments of the game and with 16 runs needed off eight balls, the lower order was not quite up to the task despite the best efforts of Gert Coetzee, who scored an unbeaten nine from four balls. Earlier, Nepal made 143-8 in 34 overs with Khadka in fine form but Sean Silver (3-20) and Strauss (2-25) kept a lid on it for Namibia. Nepal will now face the winner of the West Indies and Papua New Guinea, who play in the other semi-final tomorrow at MPTI, Johor. That Plate Championship final will take place at Bayuemas in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday SCORECARD Youth ODI no. 626 ICC Under-19 World Cup - 9th Place Playoff Semi Final Namibia Under-19s v Nepal Under-19s 2007/08 season Played at Johor Cricket Academy Oval (neutral venue) on 26 February 2008 (50-over match) Result Nepal Under-19s won by 4 runs Nepal Under-19s innings (34 overs maximum) R B 4s 6s SR MK Chhetri lbw b Strauss 9 31 0 0 29.03 AK Mandal run out (van Schoor) 23 54 2 0 42.59 G Malla lbw b Coetzee 1 4 0 0 25.00 P Khadka c van der Westhuizen b Strauss 44 63 3 0 69.84 AK Gupta c Engelbrecht b Silver 11 9 2 0 122.22 RK Vishvakarma c Louw b Scholtz 2 10 0 0 20.00 P Thapa c Ya France b Silver 6 4 0 1 150.00 Rom Shrestha b Silver 18 22 0 1 81.81 S Khadka not out 7 6 1 0 116.66 Raj Shrestha not out 1 1 0 0 100.00 Extras (lb 4, w 17) 21 Total (8 wickets; 34 overs) 143 (4.20 runs per over) Did not bat A Bhattarai Fall of wickets1-26 (Chhetri, 7.5 ov), 2-28 (Malla, 9.1 ov), 3-76 (Mandal, 21.4 ov), 4-? (Gupta, 22.3 ov), 5-95 (Vishvakarma, 25.3 ov), 6-102 (Thapa, 26.3 ov), 7-129 (P Khadka, 32.3 ov), 8-133 (Rom Shrestha, 33.2 ov) Bowling O M R W Econ M Engelbrecht 7 0 15 0 2.14 (4w) KM Strauss 6 0 25 2 4.16 (3w) GSJ Coetzee 5 0 18 1 3.60 (1w) LP van der Westhuizen 4 0 22 0 5.50 (2w) BM Scholtz 7 0 39 1 5.57 (1w) S Silver 5 0 20 3 4.00 Namibia Under-19s innings (target: 144 runs from 34 overs) R B 4s 6s SR S Silver c Vishvakarma b Bhattarai 7 16 1 0 43.75 C Bouwer lbw b P Khadka 8 31 0 0 25.80 R van Schoor c Mandal b P Khadka 48 73 2 0 65.75 LP van der Westhuizen lbw b S Khadka 33 38 2 1 86.84 E Steenkamp b Raj Shrestha 1 4 0 0 25.00 T Louw run out (P Khadka) 7 20 0 0 35.00 KM Strauss c & b Raj Shrestha 15 24 0 0 62.50 M Engelbrecht st Chhetri b Vishvakarma 0 3 0 0 0.00 HN Ya France c Malla b Vishvakarma 1 2 0 0 50.00 GSJ Coetzee not out 9 4 0 0 225.00 BM Scholtz not out 0 0 0 0 - Extras (lb 5, w 5) 10 Total (9 wickets; 34 overs) 139 (4.08 runs per over) Fall of wickets1-15 (Silver, 6.3 ov), 2-17 (Bouwer, 7.6 ov), 3-67 (van der Westhuizen, 18.2 ov), 4-68 (Steenkamp, 19.2 ov), 5-81 (Louw, 24.4 ov), 6-116 (Strauss, 30.6 ov), 7-126 (Engelbrecht, 32.2 ov), 8-128 (Ya France, 32.5 ov), 9-131 (van Schoor, 33.3 ov) Bowling O M R W Econ A Bhattarai 7 0 16 1 2.28 (2w) P Khadka 7 1 29 2 4.14 Raj Shrestha 6 1 23 2 3.83 (2w) S Khadka 7 0 33 1 4.71 (1w) RK Vishvakarma 7 0 33 2 4.71 Toss Nepal Under-19s, who chose to bat first Series Nepal Under-19s advanced Player of the match P Khadka (Nepal Under-19s) Umpires PK Baldwin (Germany) and SS Prasad (Singapore) Match referee MJ Procter (South Africa) Reserve umpire SJ Davis (Australia)