184 runs stand between Airee and Pun helped Nepal to put a mammoth total on board against Bloomfield.
Paras Khadka won the toss and elected to bat first. Nepal’s regular opener and vice-captain of the side, Gyanendra Malla, was rested for this match. Veteran Khakurel and Young Sah came out to start the innings for Rhinos. Sah (17) was the first man to return back as he was caught by Seshan at mid-off off Imran’s delivery. Paras Khadka lost his wicket while trying to accelerate the innings.
He scored run-of-ball 23. Rohit Kumar Paudel and Subash Khakurel were struggling to score. He faced too many balls before getting out. Khakurel was first among them to get out as he faced 33 balls to add 9 runs. It wasn’t a good day at office for Paudel as he expensed 39 balls for his 11 runs. Nepal was reduced to 84/4 inside 20th over. Sagar Pun, who was playing his comeback innings for Nepal, joined the crease and batted beautifully along with Dipendra Airee. Duo shared innings defining 184 runs, expensing 154 balls
Sagar Pun smashed 83 ball- 92 runs and remained 8 runs short of his well deserved century. He had already registered 3 century this year in domestic circuit. Then his counterpart, Airee, changed his gear to top level and slammed 95 ball- 121 runs. Karan KC, who was sent ahead of Sheikh, also played his part to propel Nepal total to 323 runs, losing 8 batsmen in 50 overs. KC added quick-fire 26 runs off 12 balls.
Bloomfield had tough task ahead as they need to score 324 runs to win against Nepal’s tough bowling attack. Nepal have rested premium medium pace bowler, Sompal Kami while their destructive leggie, Lamichhane, is representing SKN Patriots in on-going CPL. Lamichhane will directly travel to Malaysia for Asia Cup Qualifier.
