Electing to bat first, Nepal scored a paltry 115/9 in the allotted 20 overs. Hong Kong met the target of 116 runs with the loss of four wickets and with 21 balls to spare.[break]
With the victory, Hong Kong also avenged the defeats against Nepal in the last two meetings. Nepal had defeated Hong Kong by one run in the last edition of the tournament. In the World T20 Cup Qualifiers, Nepal had defeated Hong Kong by 28 runs.
Asked about Nepal´s chances of qualifying for the semifinals, coach Pubudu Dassanayake said, “We just have to win the remaining two matches to make it to the semifinals.”
“We couldn´t do well in batting today. Our batting display was not up to our expectations,” added the Sri Lankan-born Canadian.
Nepal´s skipper Paras Khadka also admitted that they couldn´t perform well with the bat.
“The pitch was good but we failed to score runs,” he said.
Khadka had a disappointing day as he was bowled by Nadeem Ahmed for just four runs and it was left to No 3 batsman Gyanendra Malla to add runs. Malla, who remained at the crease till the 18th over, shared the highest partnership of 24 runs for the fourth wicket with Binod Bhandari.
Malla scored 38 runs off 39 balls with three boundaries before he was caught by Anshuman Rath off Aizaz Kham in 18.3 overs when Nepal´s score was 107/8.
Nepal did not have an ideal start as opening batsmen Subash Khakurel and Pradeep Airee were able to score only one run by the end of the first over.
Except for the three boundaries scored by Airee, the opening pair struggled to make an impact. Khakurel (6) was out soon in the first ball of the fifth over with 16 runs on the board. Khakurel was trapped lbw by Tanwir Afzal.
Airee and Malla then shared a 19-run partnership for the second wicket before Airee (21) was caught by Jamie Atkinson off Afzal.
Skipper Khadka attempted a boundary off his first delivery but managed to score only three runs. He was soon bowled by Ahmed in 7.6 overs leaving Nepal struggling at 40/3.
Except Malla, the wickets of other Nepali batsmen kept on tumbling in regular interval as Nepal´s defeat seemed imminent.
Binod Bhandari (15) and Shakti Gauchan (11) were the other contributors for Nepal while the other batsmen failed to reach double figures.
Ahmed was the pick of the Hong Kong bowlers as he finished the game with three wickets conceding 18 runs.
In the run-chase, Hong Kong made an impressive start with openers Irfan Ahmed (30) and Waqas Barkat (39) sharing a crucial 41-run partnership for the first wicket.
Ahmed smashed two sixes and three fours before being caught by Gauchan off Basanta Regmi in 3.4 overs. He shot two sixes and two fours off Amrit Bhattarai in the third over of the innings.
Skipper Khadka was also expensive as he conceded 14 runs in the second over.
Gauchan gave Nepal a glimmer of hope by removing third-order batsman Jamie Atkinson (0) in the fifth over without conceding a run.
The introduction of the left-arm spinner brought a brief halt to the run spree of Hong Kong batsmen but the visitors again found their rhythm as Barkat and unbeaten Nizakat Khan added 70 runs for the third wicket to steer their team toward victory.
Barkat was bowled by Regmi in the fourth ball of the 15th over when Hong Kong was at 111/3.
Barkat scored 39 runs off 37 balls, including four fours, while Khan smashed two sixes and three fours to score 42 runs off 33 balls.
As Hong Kong was eying victory, Khakurel removed No 5 batsman Courtney Kruger for a duck off Basnata Regmi in 14.6 overs but it was too late to deny a victory to the visitors.
Babar Hayat and Khan played patiently in the next over to level the scores and then Hayat struck the winning run in 16.3 overs.
Despite the defeat, Nepal still has a chance of progressing to the next round as the top two teams will qualify from the group stage.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong is now the clear favorite to top Group A having defeated another tough opponent Malaysia earlier on the opening day. Singapore and the Maldives are the other two teams in the group.
Maldives stuns Singapore
The Maldives stunned Singapore by five wickets in a Group A match of the ACC T20 Cup on Wednesday.
The Maldives, which had lost to Nepal by 76 runs on Tuesday, kept its hopes alive with the win at the Pulchowk Engineering Ground on Wednesday.
Opting to field after winning the toss, the Maldives restricted Singapore to 132/9 and then reached 133/5 with 20 balls to spare.
Mohamed Rishwan topscored for the Maldives with 48 runs while Mihusan Hamid contributed 26 runs.
In Group B, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) registered victories in their respective matches on Wednesday. Kuwait defeated Bahrain by three wickets at the TU Cricket Ground while the UAE thrashed Oman by seven wickets at the Pulchowk Engineering Ground.
Bahrain elected to bat and was all out for 132 runs in 18.4 overs. Anasim Khan topscored for Bahrain with 27 runs off 45 balls. Hisham Mirza claimed four wickets for Kuwait. Chasing a 133-run target, Kuwait reached 135/7 with five balls to spare.
Kuwait was at 54/6 by the end of the seventh over but Sibtain Raza (unbeaten 33 runs off 51 balls) and Saad Khalid (43 runs off 42 balls) put up a 65-run partnership for the seventh wicket to guide Kuwait to victory. Raza, who also claimed two wickets earlier, was adjudged the man-of-the-match.
Meanwhile, the UAE elected to field and bowled out Oman for a meager 82 runs in 18.1 overs. Adnan Tlyas (unbeaten 40 runs off 64 balls) and Jatinder Singh (14 runs off 26 balls) were the only Oman batsmen to reach double figures.
Roshan Mustafa of the UAE took three wickets. The UAE then met the target in 12.3 overs losing only three wickets. Bakhtiyar Hamid (28 runs off 43 balls), Abdul Shakoor (22 runs off 10 balls) and Amjad Ali (20 runs off 19 balls) were the major contributors for the UAE. Mustafa was adjudged the man-of-the-match.
PHOTOS BY BIKASH KARKI
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