Nepal beat Singapore by 6 wickets in ACC U-16 East Zone opener

KATHMANDU: Nepal made a winning start to the ACC U-16 East Zone Cup, defeating Singapore by 6 wickets in the tournament opener held at UKM Oval, Malaysia, on Sunday.

Chasing a modest target of 139 runs, Nepal reached the mark in 33.3 overs, losing only four wickets.

Opener Prasiddha Jaishi anchored the chase with a composed knock of 55 runs off 97 balls, hitting five boundaries.

Fellow opener Raunak Srivastava provided a solid start with a quickfire 40 off 44 deliveries, including five fours and a six.

Earlier, Singapore won the toss and opted to bat first but were bowled out for 138 runs in 36.1 overs.

Captain Riyan Nayak top-scored with a fluent 53 runs off 53 balls, hitting nine boundaries. Ahaan Bhudanbham contributed 38 runs from 33 balls at the top of the order.

Nepal’s bowlers put on a clinical display. Captain Bipin Sharma led from the front, picking up 4 wickets, while Sachin Bhatta claimed 3. Shubham Khanal and Abhay Yadav took a wicket each to wrap up the Singapore innings.

For Singapore, Aakash Teja was the standout bowler with figures of 3 wickets, while Yuvan Pandey took 1.

With this victory, Nepal earned 2 points and took an early lead in Group A, which includes Singapore, Bhutan, Indonesia, and Japan.

Group B features hosts Malaysia, Hong Kong, Maldives, Thailand, and Myanmar.

Nepal will look to carry this momentum forward in the upcoming group-stage matches.