Nepal won by two wickets

KATHMANDU: SEPT. 7 –  Nepal has won the ODI match against Papua New Guinea (PNG) by 2 wickets.

Despite the modest target of 135 runs, Nepal struggled to win. Nepal had to struggle a lot as the middle-order batsmen did not have reliable batting amidst a good start.

Rohit Kumar Poudel scored 41, Aashif Sheikh 30 and Sompal Kami 22 (not out) in Nepal’s victory. The batting of other players was not memorable. Kushal and Aashif shared 46 runs for the first wicket to give the team a good start. But after Kushal was dismissed for the first wicket with 15 runs, Nepali batsmen almost returned to the pavilion.

Captain Gyanendra Malla and Sharad Vesawkar were out for 6-6 and Kushal Malla was out for 1 run. Pawan Sharraf could not open the run account.

Earlier, after Oman won the toss and elected to bat first, Nepal bowled well and bowled out PNG for 134 in the 33rd over.

Sandeep Lamichhane took 4 wickets for Nepal. Similarly, Kushal Malla and Bikram Sob took two wickets each and Sompal Kami took one wicket.

Bikram Sob, who made his ODI debut, took 2 wickets. He took the wicket in the first ball of the debut game and also became the first player to take a wicket in the debut ball for Nepal.

He bowled 5 overs and took 2 wickets for 20 runs with 1 maiden.

Similarly, today’s most successful bowler Sandeep bowled the entire 10 overs and took 4 wickets for 35 runs.

Similarly, Kushal bowled 7 overs and took 2 wickets for 19 runs including 1 maiden. Sompal took 1 wicket for 37 runs in 7 overs.

Nepal’s Pawan Sharraf bowled 2 overs and scored 7 runs while Aarif Sheikh bowled 2 overs and scored 14 runs. Both of them could not take wickets.

PNG’s Lega Siyaga was the top scorer with 30 runs.

Arriving in Oman to play triangular cricket under the World Cup Cricket League II, Nepal played its first match against PNG today as per the schedule of playing two ODIs. The next match will be on Thursday.