Nepal youngsters had a horrific outing in their clash against UAE Under-19 side in the ongoing ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2022. The left-arm pacer Mahika Gaur bowled a dream T20 spell and took five wickets while conceding just two runs to help her side bundled out Nepal U19 for a single-digit score of 8.
The ultimate collapse
While Mahika rushed through Nepal's batting lineup, it was Indhuja Nandakumar who set the ball rolling with the wicket of Anjali Bishowkarma. In her second over, Mahika struck off the first two deliveries. The 16-year-old missed her hat-trick but got three wickets from four deliveries.
Indhuja got another wicket in her second over and Nepal had half of their side back in the pavillion for two runs in the fourth over. From the other end, Mahika continued to haunt Nepal batters and completed her five-wicket haul in the eighth over. Indhuja took one more wicket whereas Samaira Dharnidharka got the last wicket of the innings off the first ball she bowled.
Mahika bowled two wicket-maidens and bowled 22 dot deliveries in her splendid spell. Six of the Nepal batters failed to open their mark as the innings ended with 11.5 overs still left in it.
The top run-scorer for Nepal was Sneha Mahara who scored three runs from 10 deliveries before getting out to Mahika.
Easy target
Chasing a target of just nine runs, UAE did not face any problem at all. Skipper Theertha Satish and Lavanya Keny chased it down in 1.1 overs. They won the match by 10 wickets with 113 balls remaining in the match.
Nepal opening bowler Anu Kadayat conceded eight runs in her first over. Even during a nine-run chase, Nepal bowlers gave two extras in form of a no ball and wide each. As the target was small, no boundaries were scored in the extremely low-scoring affair.
Playing with big guns
Interestingly, Manika is a part of UAE’s senior T20I side as well. However, her performances are nowhere similar to what she pulled off against Nepal. She has played 14 games and picked up three wickets.
