Earlier, Nepal played three practice matches against the U-25 team of Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA). Nepal lost its first match against DDCA U-25 but won the next two matches.[break]
Nepal put up 104/9 in the T20 match after Railways XI elected to field first at the Roshanara Club Ground in Delhi. In reply, Railways XI was restricted to 101/9 in 20 overs.
Railways XI needed four runs off the last ball of the match but Basanta Regmi claimed the wicket of Sandeep Yadav to seal victory in a nail-biting finish.
Sagar Pun put up a brilliant bowling performance claiming three wickets of Railways. Pun bowled three overs, keeping a maiden over and giving away only nine runs. Amrit Bhattarai took two wickets while skipper Paras Khadka and Regmi picked up a wicket each.
Pratham Singh (20 runs), S Vignesh (15 runs), Prashant Awasthi (13 runs), Neel Kanth (12 runs) and Hitesh Kadam (unbeaten 12 runs) were the major contributors for Railways.
Earlier, skipper Paras Khadka scored an unbeaten 44 runs off 47 balls to guide Nepal to a respectable total.
Anchoring the Nepali innings and playing cautiously, Khadka hit only three boundaries. Pradeep Airee scored 19 runs off 19 balls. Airee hit two fours and a six. None of the other Nepali batsmen could reach double figures.
Shamshul Huda and Hitesh Kadam took three wickets each for Railways while Karan Thakur, Pankaj Chaudhary and Akshit Pandey claimed a wicket each.
Nepal will take on Railways XI again at the same venue on Saturday.
Nepal is touring the Indian capital as part of preparations for the upcoming ICC World T20 Qualifiers to be held in the United Arab Emirates from November 15 to 30. Nepal has been drawn in Group B of the qualifiers along with Afghanistan, Scotland, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Bermuda and Denmark.
The top six teams of the qualifiers will progress to the World T20 to be held in Bangladesh in 2014.
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