Nepal registered first win of the tournament against host Malaysia to keep their mathematical chances alive. They registered 19 runs victory in rain effected match. Match was reduced to 30 overs per side due to rain and wet outfield.
Malaysia were in need of 189 runs from 180 balls. They were 19 runs short of target, scoring 169 runs in 30 overs, losing 9 wickets. Malaysia started it well with 26 runs in 3 overs before losing Sharif (09) in conclusive ball of third over. Sompal Kami sent back Sharif with Khakurel’s catch behind the stumps. Faiz and Arudin added 40 runs for second wicket. Faiz was first man to go as Regmi dismissed him for 22 runs. Arudin (34), Singh (21) and Aziz (34) all scored runs but failed to covert it into big one. Nepal’s bowlers caught their best rhythm and took 5 wickets for last 38 runs to procure 19 runs win. Sompal Kami picked up 2 wickets expensing 39 runs in 6 his overs. Veteran spinner Regmi picked up maximum 3 wickets. Lamichhane bowled exceptional spell and picked up 2 wickets, expensing just 20 runs in 6 overs. Airee and Pun also chipped in with a wicket each.
Earlier, Malaysia asked Nepal to bat first. Nepal benched Rohit Kumar Paudel and Karan KC to bring Anil Kumar Sah and Lalit Bhandari in the side. Anil Sah and Subash Khakurel started batting for Nepal. They were looking good but perished quickly. Khakurel lost his wicket, scoring 9 runs from 8 balls with 2 fours. Malla, who came to bat at 3, consumed 20 balls and walked back to pavilion, scoring 11 runs. Paras Khadka failed for three consecutive times in this tournament as he added 13 runs from 11 balls including 2 fours. Sah hung there for long time and scored 16 runs from 33 balls. Sagar Pun walked back in no time, facing just a single delivery. Nepal were reduced to 60 runs for the lost of 5 wickets in 13th over. Then, Dipendra Airee and Aarif Sheikh recovered Nepal’s innings. They shared innings defining 101 runs, taking 88 balls. Dipendra smashed 54 runs from 51 balls with 6 fours and a six. Aarif Sheikh played innings of his life with 64 runs from 48 balls. He slammed 2 fours and 2 sixes in his mouth-watering innings. In the end, Nepal recovered it perfectly to propel their total to 188 runs, losing 7th wickets in 30 overs. Ezat Idrus took 3 wickets for Malaysia, expensing 27 runs in his bowling spell of 6 overs. Muniandy was quite expensive but he successfully picked up 3 wickets. He expensed 50 runs in his 6 overs of bowling spell.
