KATHMANDU: Nepal defeated Papua New Guinea by two wickets in the ICC World Cup League 2 Cricket on Wednesday after Rohit Poudel and Arif Sheikh shared a century.
Nepal completed the target of 205 runs in the last over. Rohit and Arif shared 102 runs for the fifth wicket as Nepal reached 42-4 in 15 overs.
This is the first time that a centenary partnership has been possible from Nepal, which is playing in the 17th ODI.
Rohit and Arif both scored half centuries. This is Rohit’s fourth ODI and Arif’s first half century.
Rohit scored 58 runs and Arif scored 53 runs. Rohit hit 4 off 82 balls and Arif hit 2 fours off 86 balls.
Kushal Bhurtel 1, Gyanendra Malla 4, Dipendra Singh Airy 8 and Asif Sheikh were out for 16 runs.
After these two outs, Karan KC and Sompal Kami won for Nepal. Sompal was dismissed for 8 off 7 balls.
Karan remained unbeaten on 29 off 25 balls. Nepal needed 5 runs in the last over to win.
After hitting a four in the first ball leg by Karan, Karan hit a straight six in the next ball to give Nepal the victory.
Earlier, Papua New Guinea won the toss and elected to bat first at the Sharjah Cricket Ground on Wednesday, scoring 204-8.
Charles Amini scored a half-century to give Papua New Guinea a worthy score. Amini, who scored 59, was dismissed in the 45th over. He hit seven fours off 82 balls.
Amini shared 74 runs for the fifth wicket with Chad Super. Super scored 35 runs in 74 balls with 2 fours.
Norman Vanua scored 22 off 12 balls to help Papua New Guinea reach 200 runs. Tony Ura and Lega Ciaca added 51 runs to give Papua New Guinea a good start.
In the 10th over, Arif Sheikh broke the partnership by catching Ura for 27 off wicketkeeper Binod Bhandari. Sieka was bowled by captain Sandeep Lamichhane in the 13th over.
Along with Sandeep, Gyanendra Malla has been playing in all the 17 ODIs played by Nepal. But Gyanendra had never bowled in ODIs before.
Gyanendra, who was brought in bowling unexpectedly, gave important success to Nepal through his off-spin bowling.
He caught Papua New Guinea’s leading batsman Asad Bhala for 19 off Kushal Bhurtel. Gyanendra played a major role in running out Hiri Hiri to zero.
This is the first time that Nepal has played in an ODI under the captaincy of Sandeep. Under Sandeep’s captaincy.
Nepal played in the Twenty20 World Cup qualifiers in Oman for the first time last month and it is continuing in the one-day internationals from the UAE tour.
Sagar Dhakal made his ODI debut from Nepal. He spent 21 runs in 4 overs and could not take any wicket. Last month, he embarked on a Twenty20 international tour from Oman.
Sompal took 3 wickets for 48 runs in 10 overs. Sandeep took 1 wicket and scored 30 runs in 10 overs. Karan KC could not take any wicket for 56 runs in 8 overs.
Nepal had played another series in September 2021 after February 2020 in the schedule of League 2 which was affected by the Kovid-19 epidemic.
In 2020, Nepal invited US and Oman to Kathmandu. In Kirtipur, Nepal had won both the matches against USA and lost both the matches against Oman.
During the tour of Oman in 2021, Nepal had won 1-1 against Oman and USA and lost another 1-1.
Papua New Guinea is the bottom team of League 2. The team has lost all 14 matches played. Nepal has won five out of nine games and lost four out of seven.
Papua New Guinea had lost to UAE by 7 wickets in the same series on the previous day. Nepal will play two games against UAE on Friday and Monday.
