KATHMANDU: With the help of Kushal Malla and Bhim Sarki’s century partnership, Nepal made a winning start in the ACC Men’s Premier Cup undergoing in Kathmandu on Monday.
In their first match of the tournament on Tuesday, Nepal won against Malaysia by 6 wickets.
Nepal completed the target of 236 runs presented by Malaysia in the match held at the Trivi Cricket Ground in Kirtipur by losing four wickets in 36.2 overs.
Kushal Malla scored 70 runs in Nepal’s win. Kushal, who presented aggressively, hit five fours and five sixes in 40 balls.
Similarly, Bhim Saraki scored 71 runs off 98 balls with five fours.
These two shared 112 runs for the fourth wicket and led Nepal to victory.
Captain Rohit Kumar Paudel scored 42 runs and opener Kushal Bhurtel scored 38 runs. Another opener of Nepal, Aasif Sheikh, returned to the pavilion in one run. Dipendra Singh Airee remained unbeaten in five runs.
Malaysia’s Muhammad Wafiq, Vijay Unni, Rizwan Houdar, and Virandeep Singh took one wicket each.
Before that, Malaysia, who came in to bat after winning the toss, made a total of 235 runs after losing nine wickets in the scheduled 50 overs.
Malaysian captain Ahmad Faiz scored 76 runs. Faiz hit eight fours and one six in 95 balls. Opener Virandeep Singh scored 46 runs. From the situation of 22-1, these two managed the innings of Malaysia by sharing 116 runs.
Apart from that, Khizr Hayat scored 22 runs, Syarjul Idrus scored 21 runs, Muhammad Amir scored 17 runs, Muhammad Shahadat scored 15 runs, Syed Aziz scored 13 runs, and Vijay Unni scored 12 runs.
Nepal’s Sompal Kami and Sandeep Lamichhane took three wickets. Lalit Rajbanshi took two wickets while Gulsan Jha took one wicket.
A total of 10 teams are participating in the Premier Cup, which is a qualifying tournament for the Asia Cup scheduled to be held in Pakistan this year. Participating teams are divided into two groups with five teams in each group.
Along with Nepal, there are Oman, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar in Group ‘A’.
Similarly, Group ‘B’ has United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hong Kong, Kuwait, Singapore, and Bahrain.
The winner of the tournament will qualify for the Asia Cup.
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