Nepal cantered to a seven-wicket win over hosts Malaysia in the semi-finals of the ACC U-19 Eastern Region cricket tournament at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Put into bat first, Malaysia were bowled out for 87 runs in 40.5 overs before the defending champions raced to victory for the loss of three wickets in just 15.5 overs. They will take on Hong Kong in the final on Tuesday.

Hong Kong beat Singapore by 51 runs under Duckworth-Lewis method at the STC Oval grounds on Monday. Hong Kong posted a mammoth 247-9 and Singapore were 97-5 when rain washed out the remainder of the match.

Only the champions of the Eastern Region will qualify for U-19 Asia Cup to be held in Sri Lanka on August 18-September 8 this year. Other teams in the U-19 Asia cup include host Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

“We did very well and everyone played their role,” Nepal skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel was quoted as saying by the ACC. “Medium pacers bowled very well and we restricted them to below 100. We played a few rushed shots with our batting which is why we lost three wickets but Bhim and I played sensibly and we won the match. Overall we played well.”

Malaysia made a poor start losing Aslam Khan Malik (1) with just one run on the board as Kamal Singh Airee had the opener caught by Pawan Sarraf in the fifth ball of their innings. Wan Amirul Zulkarnian and No 3 batsman Muhammad Amir tried to revive the Malaysia innings putting on 45-run stand for the second wicket.

Kushal Malla broke the partnership when he bowled Amir the 12th over.

Amir top scored with 24 off 32 deliveries while Zulkarnian made a painstaking 11 off 46 balls.

None of the other batsman barring Haiqal Md Khair (12) and Ahmad Akmal Alif (10) were able to score runs in double figures. Malaysian batsman found it hard to score runs but were able to hung on to drag their innings till the 41st over. Man-of-the-match Sagar Dhakal was pick of the Nepali bowlers with figures of 3-16 from 10 overs. Kushal Malla also took two while Airee, Rashid Khan and Tilak Raj Bhandari claimed one wicket each.

Nepal raced to victory in 15.5 overs but not before losing three wickets. Malaysia reduced Nepal to 30-3 in 6.3 overs after taking the wickets of Pawan Sarraf (18), Rit Gautam (3) and Khadak Bahadur Bohara (0). But Rohit Kumar Paudel and Bhim Sharki batted with ease to complete the chase.

Sharki scored 33 off 34 balls with two fours and a six, while Paudel hit 29- ball 31 with two boundaries and a six. Haiqal Md Khair claimed two and Amit took one wicket for Malaysia.