Tri-Nation T20I cricket series: Nepal reaches final, defeats PNG by 85 runs

Kathmandu: Nepal has won the match against Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the Tri-Nation T20I cricket series.

Nepal defeated PNG by 85 runs and bagged its place in the finals on Tuesday. With 3 points from 3 matches, Nepal is at the top of the points table. Kushal Bhurtel presented an all-around performance to win the match. Opening batsman Kushal Bhurtel scored a half-century for the team and took 4 wickets.

PNG failed to meet the target of 199 runs. PNG was packed up in 16.1 overs and scored only 113 runs. Hiri Hiri scored 28 and Captain Asad Vala scored 21 runs for the team. Apart from Kushal, Pratis GC took 2 and Gulsan Jha and Aakash Chand took 1 wicket each for Nepal.

Nepal scored 198 runs with the loss of 6 wickets in the first innings. Kushal Bhurtel scored 59 runs out of 39 balls by smashing 4 boundaries and hitting 4 sixes. Sundeep Jora scored 56 runs out of 26 balls by hitting 3 boundaries and 4 sixes. Binod Bhandari scored 27 runs and Lokesh Bam 14 runs for the team. Bibek Yadav and Gulsan Jha were unbeaten at 19 and 15 runs respectively. Aarif Sheikh scored 4 and Captain Rohit Kumar Paudel 1 run for the team. Assad Vala took 2 wickets for PNG.

PNG and Hong Kong will compete at 11:45 am to reach the finals.