Kathmandu: Nepal lost to UAE by 68 runs in the tri-nation ODI series under ICC World Cup Cricket League-2.
Chasing the target of 208 runs given by UAE, Nepal got all out after scoring 139 runs in 5 balls in 31 overs. Although Kushal Malla scored 60 runs and Sandeep Lamichhane scored 26 not out for Nepal, other players did not perform well. On the bowling side, Rehan Mustafa and Karthik Mayapan of UAE took 3/3 wickets.
UAE, who lost the toss and batted earlier at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, scored 207 runs after losing 7 wickets in the scheduled 50 overs. Asif Khan scored 72 and Rehan Mustafa scored 52 for UAE. On the bowling side, Sandeep Lamichhane of Nepal took 3 wickets. Sandeep took 3 wickets giving 27 runs in 10 overs.
Similarly, Karan KC, Arif Sheikh and Kushal Malla took 1 wicket each. After losing to UAE, Nepal will now be in the top three of League-2 and will have to win all 6 games left to play in the World Cup. In the points table, Nepal is in sixth position with 28 points from 30 matches.
With this defeat, Nepal’s record of winning five games in a row will be ‘broken’. Earlier, Nepal, who visited the UAE after winning all 4 matches at home, defeated Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the first match of the tri-nation series.
