Nepal makes it three in a row

The Himalayan Times, Kathmandu, July 21:

Nepali national cricket team registered a comfortable four-wicket win over Sri Lanka Cricket Board-XI in their friendly match at the Moratuwa Stadium in Colombo on Monday.

The Nepali team had also won two previous matches. Put into bat first, the hosts were dismissed for 149 runs in 49 overs. Nepal scored 153-6 in the 38th over in reply. Nepali skipper Binod Das and Raj Kumar Pradhan claimed three wickets each. Amrit Bhattarai also took two while Sanjam Regmi and Basant Regmi pocketed one wicket each.

In reply, opener Paresh Lohani top-scored with 34 runs for the touring team. Alrounder Paras Khadak remained unbeaten on 31 while Dipendra Chaudhary and Gyanendra Malla chipped in 24 and 21 runs respectively. Basant Regmi remained unbeaten on 10.

The Nepali team is currently in Sri Lanka as part of their final preparation for the upcoming ACC Trophy Elite Cup to be held in Malaysia from July 25 to August 3. Nepal will head for Kuala Lumpur on July 23.

Nepal are drawn in Group B at the ACC Trophy along with Hong Kong, Qatar, Singapore and Kuwait. Group A comprises of Afghanistan, Bahrain, the UAE, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Nepal will open their campaign against Hong Kong on July 25 before taking on Qatar the next day. They will meet Singapore on July 28 and will complete the league round with a match against Kuwait two days later.