ACC Premier Cup Cricket: Nepal defeats Saudi Arabia by 6 wickets

Kathmandu: Nepal has defeated Saudi Arabia by six wickets in its last game of the group stage in the ACC Premier Cup.

With this win, Nepal will play the semi-final, remaining unbeaten in the group-stage matches.

Today’s match held at Al Amerat Cricket Ground in Oman was reduced to eight from 20 overs after rain affected it. Batting first, Saudi Arabia posted a victory target of 74 runs before Nepal.

Nepal achieved the target in 7.2 overs, losing four wickets. Gulshan Jha collected 32 runs unbeaten for Nepal. He hit two sixes and two fours off 19 balls. Dipendra Singh Airee made 17 runs and skipper Rohit Paudel was unbeaten at 16. The rest of the batters could not make double-digit runs.

Ishtiaq Ahmed took two wickets for Saudi Arabia while Usman Najeeb and Wazi Ul Hasan each took one wicket.

Electing to bat first after losing the toss, Saudi Arabia made 73 runs, losing seven wickets, in the allotted eight overs. Abdul Waheed scored 37 runs for the team. Other Saudi batters could not make runs in the double-digit runs.

For Nepal, Karan KC and Abinash Bohara each took two wickets while Pratis GC and Lalit Rajbanshi each took one wicket.

Nepal, which is placed in Group ‘A’ had defeated Malaysia by five wickets in the first match, Qatar by 32 runs in the second match and Hong Kong by eight wickets in the third match.