KATHMANDU: Aashif Sheikh and Gyanendra Malla’s record-breaking partnership and Kushal Malla’s explosive half-century helped Nepal defeat Namibia by 3 wickets in the ICC Cricket World Cup League-2 on Saturday.
While winning the third match in a row in League-2, Nepal completed the target of 275 runs given by Namibia by losing 3 wickets after playing 47.3 overs.
Nepal has already defeated Namibia and Scotland in the League 2 series at home. Nepal won the game for the third time in a row after chasing a score of 270 runs.
Asif Sheikh scored the highest 81 runs for Nepal. Similarly, Gyanendra Malla scored 65 runs and Kushal Malla scored 62 runs. Captain Rohit Kumar Paudel scored 39 runs.
While chasing the target, Kushal Bhurtel was dismissed for 1 run in the third over. But Ashif and Gyanendra managed the innings by sharing a record 139 runs for the second wicket. This is Nepal’s highest partnership in ODIs.
This pair broke the partnership of 133 runs made by Kushal Bhurtel and Rohit Paudel in the first match of this League-2.
The partnership was broken after Gyanendra Mall got out in the 27th over. Gyanendra played 74 balls and added 65 runs with the help of 5 fours and 3 hits.
Aashif played 98 balls and scored 81 runs with the help of 8 fours and 2 sixes. Aashif was dismissed in the 32nd over.
Then Kushal Malla and Rohit continued the innings. Kushal batted ahead of Rohit on Saturday. Even though both were new at the crease, they shared a 92-run partnership.
Rohit played 43 balls and scored 39 runs with the help of 5 fours. Dipendra Singh Airee was dismissed in 1 run.
Before that, Namibia, who lost the toss and batted first, scored 274 runs with the loss of 6 wickets by playing Zane Green’s unbeaten 75 runs in 50 overs.
Namibia added 115 runs in the last 10 overs.
Karan, who took 5 wickets in the previous match, took only 1 wicket today. For that he spent 70 runs in 9 overs.
Karan KC took 1 wicket with 61 runs in 9 overs. Dipendra Singh Airee spent 37 runs keeping 1 maiden in 10 overs but could not take a wicket. Two Namibian players were run out. Sandeep Lamichhane took three wickets today.
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