25 May 2008

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Nepal’s left-arm seamer Mahaboob Alam produced an extraordinary performance at Grainville on Sunday, taking all ten wickets at a cost of 12 runs as Mozambique were bowled out for 19 in 14.5 overs.

Alam was on a hat-trick three times in the course of his 7.5 overs, and finished off the innings with four wickets – three of them bowled – in six balls.

He bowled straight and full throughout his spell, and four of his victims were out leg-before.

Remarkably, in the first attempt to play the match on Saturday, in which Mozambique had been bowled out for 70 before the rain descended, Alam had contributed a wicketless five-over spell as Binod Das and Basant Regmi each collected five-wicket hauls.

But on Sunday he was not to be denied, and the Mozambicans had no answer to his mastery of line and length.

Mozambique were chasing a Nepalese total of 238 for seven, which represented a good recovery after they had been 30 for three at one stage. Imtiyaz Lili picked up two wickets and Aasif Koliya one, but then Shakti Gauchan and Gyanendra Malla restored the innings with a fourth-wicket stand of 73.

Gauchan went for 34, but Malla continued in partnership with Paras Khadka, adding 80 for the fifth wicket.

Khadka was the next to go, after making 44 off 50 balls with two fours and a six, and Malla was finally out for 71, made from 101 balls with four boundaries.

Alam and Basant Regmi pushed the total up to 234, and it had reached 238 by the close.

Koliya was the most successful of the Nepalese bowlers with three for 49.

The Nepalese total always seemed likely to be too much for Mozambique, but nobody could have reckoned with Alam’s unbelievable achievement. There wasn’t too much doubt about who would win the Man of the Match award.