Nepal registered its third victory beating Kuwait by 83 runs in its fourth match at the Kinrara Oval Academy in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday to confirm a top-three finish.Nepal's international umpire Satyajit Sarkar, who is in Malaysia, confirmed that Nepal has qualified for the U-19 Asia Cup.
Afghanistan and Malaysia have also secured their places in the Asia Cup, whose schedule is yet to be confirmed, according to Sarkar.
Malaysian Cricket Association, which is hosting the premier league, also confirmed that Nepal has qualified for the Asia Cup along with Afghanistan and Malaysia.
However, Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) kept mum about the qualification.
With the win over Kuwait, Nepal collected six points from four matches and is in the second position in the points table, while Afghanistan, which has maintained cent percent winning streak in four matches, is on the top of the table.
Host Malaysia is in the third position despite having six points from four matches due to inferior net run rate.
Although, Tuesday's win kept Nepal's chances of clinching the title alive, its fate will depend upon the results of its last match against Saudi Arabia as well as Afghanistan's match against Malaysia to be played on Thursday.
Nepal will be able to claim the title only if it records a big-margin win over Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan losses to Malaysia by a big margin.
On Tuesday, after posting 251 runs' target, Nepal restricted Kuwait for 167/9 in allotted 50 overs although Mohammed Meezan Ali remained not out on 84 runs off 112 balls that included three sixes and six fours.
Kuwait started its run chase in pretty well manner but failed to maintain the same pace. Aarif Sheikh gave Nepal the breakthrough in the last ball of the sixth over claiming opener Mushtaq Ahmad (22 runs off 25 balls) when Kuwait had collected 28 runs. Mushtaq smashed a six and three boundaries.
Later, Mohammed Meezan tried to push Kuwait ahead in the game but the fall of wickets at regular interval decided the result in Nepal's favor.
Sushil Kandel took the wicket of another opener Allen Thomas (13 off 33) in the 11.2 overs and Bilal Tahir (13 off 50) was caught by Rajbir Singh off Prem Tamang in the 23.1 overs to further dent the spirit of Kuwait.
The departure of Noman Budroo (12 off 43) in 36.4 overs with 103 runs on board made the run chase quite tough for Kuwait, which scored only 64 runs in the remaining 13.2 overs losing four wickets.
Sushil and Prem bagged two wickets, while Aarif and Dipendra Singh Airee claimed one wicket each for Nepal.
Earlier, winning the toss and opting to bat first, Nepal managed 250/8 in the allotted 50 overs as tail-enders Dipendra scored 85 runs and Saurav Khanal contributed 73 runs.
Nepal made a poor start with bat, losing five wickets with only 34 runs on board until 8.4 overs, but Dipendra shared a 32-run stand with skipper Raju Rijal (15 off 15) for the sixth wicket to anchor the Nepali innings.
However, the pair of Dipendra (85) and Saurav (73) stole the show adding 130 runs for the seventh wicket to help Nepal put up a fighting total.
Player-of-the-match, Dipendra cracked two sixes and nine boundaries, while Saurav smashed a six and five boundaries.
Later, Saurav added 48 runs for the eighth wicket with Prem, who scored unbeaten 23 runs facing 27 balls, that included a four.
In other matches, Afghanistan beat Saudi Arabia by eight wickets, while Malaysia thrashed the UAE by five wickets.
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