Nepal won the toss and elected to bat first at the Sharjah Cricket Ground. Nepal accumulated 122 runs losing seven wickets in limited 20 overs. In reply, Malaysia met the target in 17.2 overs losing just four wickets.
The loss means newly appointed Nepali captain Paras Khadka begins his captaincy on a sad note. Paras had replaced Binod Das from the captain´s role. Nepal had lost the first match of the ICC World Division-2 in 2005 under Binod´s captaincy against Papua New Guinea.
Mehboob Alam and Paresh Lohani produced a first wicket partnership of 49 runs and gave a good start to Nepal. However, middle order batsmen could not continue the momentum. Mehboob scored 31 runs. He faced 34 balls and struck four boundaries while Paresh faced 19 balls to score 20 runs.
Likewise, Gyanendra Malla made 22 runs in 23 balls. He struck a boundary and a six during his knock. Dipendra Chaudhary scored four runs while Paras scored 10. Sharad Vesawkar added 8 runs while Basanta Regmi scored three runs.
Nik Azril, Esz Rafiq and Muthuraman Solhalingan took two wickets each for Malaysia.
Mohammad Faiz scored unbeaten 40 runs for Malaysia. He faced 34 balls and struck two boundaries and a six. Likewise, Rakesh Mahadevan scored 30 runs. Binod, Paras, Shakti Gauchan and Sanjam Regmi took one wicket each for Nepal.
In the last 13 years´ history of Nepali cricket, this is the first defeat against Malaysia. Nepal had defeated Malaysia by 21 runs in the last edition of the tournament.
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