Nepal registered their first win in the tournament today. In the first match played yesterday, Nepal was defeated by Qatar by 4 wickets and this was the do or die for them. With the continuous rain during the game, Nepal's world cup hopes was almost over before a 9 over match was possible at the last moment. Nepal won the toss and they elected to bowl first in overcast conditions.
Malaysia scored 83 runs in 9 overs losing their 7 wickets. Syed Aziz scored 30 runs with the help of 5 fours and 1 six. Virandeep Singh scored 21 runs in 17 balls with the help of a four and a six. The rest batsman could not score the run in double figures. Sompal Kami took 3 wickets for Nepal. He gave 23 runs in 2 overs. Basanta Regmi took 2 wickets in 1 over by giving only 9 runs. Sandeep Lamichanne gave 17 runs in 2 overs by taking a wicket. Karan Kc took a wicket. He bowled 2 overs and gave 12 runs. Paras Khadka did not play this match because of his back injury. Lalit Rajbansi also rested in the bench. Pradeep Airi and Rohit Paudel was in the playing eleven for Nepal.
In the absence of Paras Khadka, Gyanendra Malla was the captain of Nepal. He was criticized because of his bad form from long time. But, he scored 51 runs in 21 balls with the help of 5 fours and 3 six. This was his firs half century in t-20 international cricket. This also became the quickest half century by any nepali batsman in this format of cricket. Before this record, Binod Bhandari had made a half century in 25 balls against Malaysia earlier this month in the international series played against Malaysia, where Nepal had won the series by 2-0. This is the two new records for Nepal in half century this month. Till now, Paras Khadka has two half century under his name. Subash Khakurel, Binod Bhandari and Sandeep Jora has made a hald century each in t-20 international cricket for Nepal.
Gyanendra Malla and Pradeep Airi made a partnership of 60 runs for the first wicket in 5.1 overs. This also happens to be the record breaking opening partnership for Nepal. Pradeep was out in 12 runs in 14 balls with the help of a four. Pradeep had hit the first four of Nepal innings. Dipendra Airi was also out in 2 runs. Binod Bhandari finished the match with the six in the last ball of the 8th over. There was still 1 more over remaining for Nepal. Binod faced 8 balls and scored not out 13 runs with the help of a six. Sharad was not out in 3 runs in 2 balls. All three nepal wickets were taken by malaysian bowler Muhamad Syahadat. He gave 19 runs in 2 overs. S Mniandy was too expensive, he gave 21 runs in a single over.
After this match, this is the latest point table. It's still hard for Nepal in terms of the run rate and as the weather of Singapore is rainy any match can be lost but Nepal needs to win the remaining 2 matches with big margin to improve their run rate if the matches are not interrupted by rain. Hopefully, Nepal will top the table and get selected for World Cup t-20 selection tournament. Anything is possible at the moment, stay tuned. I will update this tournament in my blog.
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