Strongroom defeated by powerful Army
TU International Ground, Kathmandu, 3/20/2018
Nepal Army won by 91 runs
Nepal Army: 186-5 [S.Pun 76, M.Chettri 50]
Strongroom: 95-6
View the Scorecard
This was always the biggest fixture of the tour. The Nepalese Army are essentially a squad of full-time cricketers, and their team is the main platform for national players to move into the ODI national team. We rocked up to the impressive TU International Ground on the outskirts of Kathmandu, and entertained ourselves during a delayed start period by warming up on the outfield. The army duly turned up, matching tracksuits and looking impressively youthful and fit.
Grant was skipper for this T20 game, and it was sadly Dave Gower’s last game of the tour, as he had caecilians to hunt down in French Guyana. The Moore bros were also absent, as Olly and Moore had departed on their cycles, on a 2.5 day jaunt to Pokhara. The Moores were replaced by two Nepalese recruits (Sonu and Pradeep), who had played against us the previous day. Good lads.
We lost the toss, and the Police got off to a very swift start, and the omens looked bad. However, we managed to impressively bring things back, due to some excellent bowling from Clinton, Ujjal, Pradeep and Sonu. We dropped a couple of catches, but overall the ground fielding was excellent, and Strongroom demonstrated a really united front. 187 was a good total, but not an outrageous one, and we did very well to claw it back. Oh, there were also a few mighty 6s struck!
The Army possessed a number of quality pace bowlers, who all had good actions and bowled at a good speed and with discipline. Clinton played very nicely, admn looked at ease in his 30. Pradeep and Sonu also played really well, but overall, the Army were clearly too strong for us. However, finishing on 96-6 was no disgrace, and we at least batted for our full quote of overs. The Army were a good bunch of friendly guys, and it was a pleasant game overall.
We said our goodbyes to David G, and headed off in the tour bus for pokhara and the second leg of our tour.
Written By: J.Gower
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