CHENNAI: "Finally. Dream came true," wrote Sita Rana Magar on social media as Nepal women's team defeated UAE to qualify for the U19 World Cup in Malaysia. One could say she was spot on with her emotions as this will be the first time a women's team from the landlocked country will participate in the ICC event.
Magar, who has witnessed the growth of women's cricket in Nepal since the formation of the team in 2007 knows how important this step is. The moment she found out about Nepal's inclusion based on superior Net Run Rate compared to UAE, celebrations followed.
"I screamed loudly and clapped hard as much as I can like a mad person," the senior player told this daily. "It means a lot for my country and it is a dream come true for all of us women’s cricketers.. especially for someone like me who has been playing from the very first team of Nepal in 2007. We did hardwork and dreamt of reaching the World Cup one day but couldn't qualify. But today our U19 team has done it. It is like a dream came true," she added.
This was not an easy task given the format of the competition where all four participating teams faced each other twice in the run up before the team with the most points would qualify for the World Cup. Nepal's biggest challenge in the competition were United Arab Emirates.
Coming into the final match of the tournament, UAE had an upperhand over Nepal given earlier in the tournament, the hosts were able to defend total to take crucial points. Come the last day of the Qualifiers, with everything riding on the final match, Nepal were ready to fight back. Krishma Gurung's four wickets skittled UAE to 83 for nine in 20 overs and it did not take Nepal's top order to chase it down. The better Net Run Rate meant Nepal were through.
In all of this, Nepal's captain Puja Mahato played a crucial role with the bat and ball. Her century against Kuwait that ended up giving Nepal a win by 165 runs proved crucial to gain the Net Run Rate boost. Having played alongside the allrounder in the senior side, Magar was all praise for the youngster. "She is a very good and disciplined player and has lots of potential.
Even though she is young, she is so serious about cricket. Puja is a good leader too and I think she proved herself in these qualifiers. It was her first captaincy experience to lead the national team and she didn’t take any pressure and gave 200% effort for the team," Magar mentioned.
For a team from the associate nation, trying to qualify for the multiple World Cups and facing multiple heartbreaks was a reality till yesterday. The U19 side has broken that cycle and Nepal are going to the international tournament.
With that Nepal also qualified for the Women's U19 Asia Cup, to be played in Malaysia ahead of the World Cup. Like Magar said, the day belonged to Nepal as their dream finally came true.