Nepal lost wickets at regular intervals in its innings and suffered from misfields and a couple of dropped catches. The UAE restricted Nepal to 95/9 in 20 overs and successfully chased the target in 18.3 overs losing four wickets.[break]
Winning the toss, Nepal elected to bat first but could not build the innings. Opener Subash Khakurel struck two consecutive boundaries off Irfan Ahmed in the second over and Anil Mandal struck another for an early momentum adding 18 runs in two overs, but soon lost their grip.
Mandal (5 off 8) was run out in the third over which began a string of dismissals of Nepali batsmen who failed to settle in the crease. Khakurel (14 off 12) was bowled by Shadeep Silva in the next over. Gyanendra Malla could not open his account as Silva trapped him LBW while captain Paras Khadka followed him adding just two runs.
Sharad Vesawkar scored seven runs off 24 balls before giving away a catch to Abdul Rehman off Ahmed Raza. In the middle order, Mehboob Alam (17 off 12), Prithu Baskota (10 off 19) and Binod Bhandari (14 off 24) struggled at the crease and could not transform their stay into big scores.
Man-of-the-match Ahmed Raza bagged three wickets for the UAE while Silva and Rohan Mustafa claimed two wickets each.
Chasing the low score, the UAE openers gave an edgy start. Vesawkar missed a difficult catch of Amjad Ali in the first over off Amrit Bhattarai. Vesawkar again dropped Ali in the second over off Sanjam Regmi. Ali departed in the next over scoring five runs. Bhattarai took his wicket.
Faizan Asif scored 13 runs before Basanta Regmi took his wicket in the seventh over of the innings.
The UAE reached 65/2 by 12.3 overs but Amrit Bhattarai took two consecutive wickets to give Nepal a faint hope. Bhattarai took the wicket of Shaiman Anwar (33 off 33) as Sanjam Regmi caught him at long-off and the wicket of Khurram Khan (10 off 22) as Gyanendra Malla caught him at mid-on. However, Bhattarai could not complete a hat-trick.
In the first ball of the 16th over, Nepali fielders gave away six runs as Vesawkar and Prithu Baskota indulged in over-throws, which provoked spectators to throw bottles and stones on the ground. However, police controlled the situation soon to resume the match.
Vikrant Shetty (unbeaten 10 off 14) and Abdul Rehman (unbeaten 19 off 22) easily guided the UAE to victory as the match resumed.
“We got a good start until Anil (Mandal) was run out. None of the batsmen could stay on the wicket for long. We had problems in shot selection,” skipper Khadka summarized the game.
“We lost wickets in bulk and we were not up to the standard in fielding. Boys are struggling to adapt to this version of the game,” said coach Pubudu Dassanayake.
Captain Khadka said they would bounce back in the next to match to stay in the tournament. Nepal will next meet Kuwait on Tuesday at the same venue.
Afghanistan, Kuwait, Maldives register wins
Kuwait, who lost to the UAE on Saturday, defeated Saudi Arabia by six wickets on Sunday while host Nepal suffered a six-wicket loss against the UAE in Group ´B´ of the ACC Twenty20 Cup.
Saudi Arabia, electing to bat first at the Engineering Campus Ground, Pulchowk, was all out for 96 runs in 19.2 overs. In reply, Kuwait met the target in 13.3 overs losing four wickets. Rizwan Qayyum scored an unbeaten 29 runs off 32 balls to guide Saudi to a fighting total on the spinning wicket of Nepal. Mohammed Asghar took three wickets for Kuwait.
Chasing the total, Yasar Idrees scored 37 runs off 22 balls as Kuwait reached 97/4 in 13.3 overs. Khawar Sohail took two wickets for Saudi Arabia.
Asghar, who also scored 13 runs in the run chase, was adjudged man-of-the-match.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan pulled off its second consecutive victory on Sunday defeating Oman by 40 runs at the TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur. Afghanistan had defeated Malaysia on Saturday.
Afghanistan batted first and was all out for 117 in 19.3 overs. Mohammad Shahzad (24 off 23) and Shabir Noori (21 off 23) were the major contributors in Afghanistan´s innings. Ajay Lalcheta took four wickets while Aamir Khaleem claimed three wickets for Oman.
Oman, who bowled superbly, could not build the innings while chasing the target. Oman was all out for 77 in 19.4 overs. Amir Ali (19 off 20) and Lalcheta (17 off 38) were the top scorers for Oman as none of the other batsmen reached double figures. Hamid Hassan and Mohammad Nabi took two wickets each for Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, in a battle of minnows, the Maldives thrashed Bhutan by nine wickets.
The Maldives won the toss and elected to field. After bundling out Bhutan for 77 in 18 overs, the Maldives met the target in 12.1 overs losing just one wicket.
Tshering Dorji topscored for Bhutan with 13 runs off 21 balls while Moosa Kaleem took three wickets for the Maldives. Kaleem also scored an unbeaten 48 runs to seal a comfortable victory. He was awarded man-of-the-match.
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