Nepal advance to Asian Regional Finals after thrashing Bhutan

Nepals impressive performance continued in the fourth match today as Nepal faced Bhutan in UKM-YSD cricket Oval, Malaysia. In the first-ever T200 match between these two South Asian sides, Bhutan elected to field first after winning the toss. Nepal thrashed Bhutan by 117 runs to move to the top of the table and also advanced to Asian Regional Finals. Bhutan after the defeat are at the fifth spot with just 2 points.

Source: Annapurna post

Pradeep Airee and Binod Bhandari started the inning for Nepal, but once again Bhandari was dismissed for nuts. Nepal was on 6/1 with some pressure but Anil Shah and Pradeep Airee partnership took Nepal to 72/2 before Gurung bowled Anil Shah out for 27 runs off 21 balls. Aarif Sheikh came to support Airee who got 13 runs off 15 balls; Singye caught him in the ball of limbo. Dipendra Singh Airee and Karan KC contributed 15 and 11 runs respectively to take Nepals innings to 150 runs in 20 overs that included 9 extra runs. Pradeep Singh Airee remained not out at 75 runs of 68 balls that included 6 fours and 2 sixes.

Chasing 151 runs, Bhutan didnt start well as they went to lose 2 crucial wickets in the first over. Nepalese pacer Rajbansi opened the bowling for Nepal who got 2 wickets maiden in his first over. In the fourth over of the match, Sandeep took another 2 wickets to bring Bhutan to 4/4 in fourth over. Bhutan was at 11/6 at the end of 8th overs as Rajbansi and Sandeep finished their spell with 3 wickets each. The pair of Basant Regmi and DS Airee added another 3 wickets to take the score to 16/9 in 10.5 overs, Nepal needed just 1 wicket for another big win. But Nepal waited for another 6 overs to get that final wicket. Vesawakar got the final wicket to restrict Bhutan to 33 runs and provide victory of 117 runs. The scorecard for this match between Nepal and Bhutan can be found here: https://www.icc-cricket.com/match/9284#scorecard

With another win, Nepal qualified for the Asian Regional Finals along with Singapore from the Eastern Regions. UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait had already qualified from the Western region. Nepal still has China and Singapore to play, China being the weakest team while Singapore being the strongest team along with Nepal. Both Nepal and Singapore has 4 wins each. The third team to join Nepal and Singapore is going to be either of Malaysia and Thailand who has 5 points each, but Malaysia with superior run rate is on the third.

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