By a Staff Reporter
Kathmandu (HamroKhelkud) – Nepal have made a winning start in the ICC T20 World Cup Final Asia on home soil. Nepal defeated Singapore by eight wickets at the TU Cricket Ground to get two points on board in Group A.
Chasing a target of 146 runs in 20 overs, Nepal scored 147 in 16.2 overs at the loss of two wickets. Kushal Bhurlet was the pick of the batters for Nepal scoring 74 off 48 deliveries with eight fours and two sixes. His opening pair Aasif Sheikh, conjured up 27 off 26 deliveries with one four and a six to his name.
Skipper Rohit Paudel remained unbeaten on 35 off 2 with two boundaries and two sixes while Kushal Malla remained unbeaten at the other end with a six on the first delivery he faced to get Nepal over the line. Anantha Krishna and Akshay Puri took one wicket each for Singapore.
Earlier, Singapore, who won the toss and chose to bat first, scored 145 at the loss of nine wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Opener Rohan Rangarajan scored the highest for Singapore with a 30-ball 46 runs with nine fours and a six to his name. His opening partner and skipper Aritra Dutta was dismissed for a duck on the second delivery of the innings.
Similarly, Manpreet Singh, who came out to bat at number five contributed 24 off 26 with three fours to his name. Anyaveer Chaudhary scored 37 off 26 with five fours while Akshay Puri scored 13 off eight deliveries. The rest of the batters couldn’t touch double figures.
Abinash Bohora took three wickets for Nepal while Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane and Gulshan Jha took two apiece. Sompal Kami was the only bowler for Nepal to go wicketless.
Nepal will take on Malaysia in their second match of the tournament tomorrow at 1:30 PM at the TU Cricket Ground.
The top two teams in each group will qualify for the semifinals while the two finalists will play the ICC T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA next year.