US defeats Nepal by 6 wickets

KATHMANDU: SEPT. 18 – Nepal has lost to the United States in ODI cricket under the World Cricket League-2. Nepal defeated the USA by 5 wickets in the first match and lost by 6 wickets in the second match.

The general target of 175 runs given by Nepal was met by the USA losing 4 wickets in 29 overs.

Steven Taylor scored 92 runs to help USA win. Monank Patel scored 38 not out and Jaskaran Malhotra added 36 not out.

Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhane and Karan KC took two wickets each. Sandeep took two wickets in the fifth over to give Nepal hope but the victory was not possible. Karan KC took two wickets in a row. The American batsman easily won due to low target.

Nepal, who lost the toss and elected to bat first, were all out for 174 runs in 48 overs.

Nepali batting line-up could not run even today. Opener Kushal Bhurtel scored 36 runs while captain Gyanendra Malla scored 55 runs. He hit his third ODI half-century off 105 balls.

Similarly, debutant Gulnash Jha scored 28 runs while Binod Bhandari was dismissed for 10 runs. Karan KC contributed 12 runs and Sandeep Lamichhane 10 runs.

Five Nepali players could not score a double run.

Aashif Sheikh 3, Rohit Poudel 2 and Kushal Malla were out for zero while Sompal Kami returned to the pavilion with 2 runs. Shushan remained unbeaten on 2 runs.

For the United States, Saurabh Netravalkar took the most 4 wickets to put pressure on Nepal. In the first match of the series, Nepal won by 5 wickets.