KATHMANDU, Feb 3: Nepal national cricket team has suffered a 64-run defeat against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the third and last practice match on Friday.
Nepal, which is preparing for the upcoming World Cricket League Division Two, beat the UAE ‘A’ by 25 runs in the first match and 193 runs in the second, but could not give continuation to the win in the third match.
The UAE gave a target of 216 runs at a loss of nine wickets in the allotted 50 overs. In reply, Nepal failed to chase the target and was all out for 151 runs in 38.5 overs.
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The Nepali team skipper Paras Khadka hit the highest 41 runs off 55 balls which included four fours, while the U-19 team captain Dipendra Singh Airee contributed with 26 runs off 31 balls including four boundaries.
Nepal found itself in a difficult situation of 8-2 in the game when Sharad Vesawakar was out in the first ball of the third over.
Rohit Kumar Paudel hit 21 runs off 24 balls, while Aarif Sheikh scored 19 runs off 46 balls. The score was 132-6 when Paudel, Airee, and Sheikh were out. Nepal made 19 runs after those dismissals and lost four wickets.
Karthik Mayappan claimed four wickets, while Hazrat Bilal and Maatiullah Khan bagged two wickets for the winning team.
Earlier, Chirag Suri scored the highest 85 runs off 102 balls for the UAE with 10 boundaries, while Ali Mirza hit 42 not out off 48 balls comprising of two boundaries. Sompal Kami pocketed three wickets and Lalit Bhandari picked two wickets. Likewise, Basant Regmi, Sandeep Lamichhane, and Paras Khadka got a wicket each for Nepal.
