Nepal advances to ACC Premier Cup final

Kathmandu: Nepal has advanced to the final of ACC Men’s Premier Cup, following the semi-final with Kuwait at TU cricket ground ended with no result.

After the interruption by rain in the second innings, Nepal has reached the final as group leader. As Kuwait won the toss and elected to field first, Nepal was put into bat at TU cricket ground in the first semi of the tournament.

The first innings was also interrupted by rain and the match was reduced to 42 overs as per DLS method. Captain Rohit Poudel batted well only to miss a century by 6 runs. He made 94 runs off 95 balls with impressive captaincy for Nepal.

Kushal Malla also managed to post half century. Malla was out after brilliantly hitting 57 off balls with 8 boundaries. While Nepali openers Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh made a good start.

Bhurtel collected 43 off 39 balls. He was caught out, hitting 7 fours and 1 six while Sheikh ended on a 31-ball 28 with four boundaries.

Aarif Sheikh ended 19-ball 19 with 3 boundaries and Samdeep Lamichhane got out with 5 runs in 4 balls. Whereas Sompal Kami and Lalit Rajbanshi managed to chip 13 and 2 runs unbeaten.

Karan KC and Bhim Karki were out with 7 and 1 runs respectively. But Dipendra Singh Airee could not make any run.

Nepal scored 281 runs with the loss of 9 wickets at the end of the first innings. Kuwait batted poorly, chasing the huge target. Kuwait collected just 37 runs, losing 6 wickets within 8.3 overs. But rain forced the match to be abandoned and Nepal was declared the winner of the first semi-final.

Kuwaiti Captain Mohammed Aslam scored 14 runs in 19 balls and got out. No other players could manage double digit scoring.

Nepali bowler Karan KC overwhelmed Kuwait with his superb bowling, taking 5 wickets while Sompal Kami took one wicket.

For Kuwait, Aslam and Adnan Idrees took 3 wickets each. While Yasin Patel and Sayed Monib each bagged one wicket.