KATHMANDU, April 3: Nepal 'A' suffered a 21-run defeat against Ireland Wolves in the opening match of the three ODI series today.
Nepal 'A', which entered the field with a target of 158 runs, played 25.3 overs of the scheduled 50 overs and lost all the wickets and scored only 136 runs. Most of the players of Nepal were caught out.
After winning the toss and batting first, Ireland Wolves gave Nepal 'A' a target of 158 runs to win the match.
In the second innings of the match, Wasir Ahmed of Nepal was dismissed after scoring 20 runs off 21 balls, while Shahab Alam managed to score 37 runs off 34 balls. Mausham Dhakal was dismissed on the very first ball he faced.
Nepal 'A' limits Ireland Wolves to 174 runs
As the last wicket, Kamal Singh Airee scored 6 runs in 11 balls and was out LBW while Binod Bhandari scored 9 runs off 6 balls before he was dismissed. Arjun Saud was caught out after scoring 4 runs off 4 balls. Earlier, Aarif Sheikh was caught out for zero runs after playing 5 balls.
Nepal's openers Dev Khanal and Arjun Kurmi were out for 26 runs off 22 balls and 9 runs off 14 balls, respectively. Bhim Sarki, too, was out soon for zero runs.
Ireland Wolves bowler McCarthy and Matthew Humphreys took four wickets each.
In the 39th over of the first innings, Ireland Wolves were limited to 157 runs, with a hat-trick by Airee of Nepal ‘A’. All the wickets of Ireland Wolves fell in 38.3 overs in the match at Kirtipur ground on Wednesday.
Nepali bowler Airee took 4 wickets including a hat-trick. He took three consecutive wickets on the first, second and third balls of the 39th over. Airee, who bowled 6.3 overs, bowled an over maiden and gave away 21 runs.
Similarly, Mausam Dhakal and Alam took two wickets each while Rijan Dhakal took one wicket.
Cade Carmichael top-scored for Wolves. He scored 51 runs in 77 balls with four fours. Captain Neil Rock scored 39 runs off 32 balls with two fours and three sixes. Peter Moore scored 21 runs while James McCollum and Stephen Doheny each added 12 runs.
As per the schedule, the second match will be played on Friday and the final match on Sunday.
