Skipper Paras Khadka was the only notable performer with bat scoring 45 runs off 42 balls. Besides Paras, Vice-captain Gyanendra Malla (24), Rajesh Pulami (13) and Sharad Vesawkar (10) were the other batsmen to reach the double figure mark. Paras's innings included a boundary and a six each.
Nepal fall 19-run sort of the target as it put on only 116/5 in allotted 20 overs.Nepal's coach Pubudu Dassanayake, however, expressed satisfaction with his side's performance. He also praised the team for restricting home team to 'low score.' "Par score of this ground is around 145 runs. We did well to keep them under 140. We also batted well but the Netherlands had good plans and they knew where to ball on this wicket," said Dassanayake.
Nepal, which has been facing drought of opening batsmen since long time, faced similar type catastrophe against the Netherlands. The first opener Subash Khakurel lost his wicket scoring only two runs. He has been the first choice as an opener batsman since a couple of year and irrepressible as well. However, he is equally known for his inconsistent performance and has failed to come up with satisfactory performance for more than a year.
Nevertheless, there is competition for the second opener as Vice-captain Gyanendra and Sagar Pun are the two batsmen who have been experimented as openers alternatively in last few matches.
As batting line up faced inconsistency there were only two major partnerships. The highest 31-runs stand for visiting side was between Paras and Rajesh for the fourth wicket, while the skipper was also involved for second highest partnership of 23-runs with debutant Pradeep Airee (6) for the sixth wicket.
Ahsan Malik and Timm van der Gugten picked up three and two wickets respectively to ensure Netherlands victory as both gave away only 23 runs each in their four-over spells.
Earlier, opting to bat first, the Netherlands put 134/5 in allotted overs as Stephen Myburgh remained not out on 67 runs off 60 balls. Michael Rippon added 25 run-a-balls.
Basant Regmi bagged two wickets for Nepal, while debutant Karan KC picked up a wicket.
Karan, Avinash Karn and Pradeep Airee were debutants for Nepali side in the T20I.
Nepal is scheduled to play the third T20I series of the match on Thursday at 20:45 NST at Hazelaarweg, Rotterdam.
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