Rit Gautam and Hari Bahadur Chauhan struck half centuries as Nepal U-19 cricket team beat Baduraliya Cricket Club by 84 runs in Colombo in a warm-up match on Thursday.

The match was part of Nepal's preparations for the ACC U-19 Asia Cup to be held in Colombo on September 5-14. the victory comes two days after the Nepali team lost to the U-23 Sinhalese Sports Club by three wickets in a last-ball thriller. On Tuesday, Nepal posted 240 runs in 42 overs and Sinhalese Sports Club completed the chase for the loss of seven wickets in the last ball of their innings.

On Thursday, Nepal were bowled out for 206 runs before restricting Baduraliya for 84 runs in 23.1 overs. Gautam and Chauhan did the bulk of the scoring for the touring team. Gautam top scored with 76, his 126-ball innings included just four boundaries. Chauhan struck two fours and a six in his 78-ball 56.

Sundeep Jora (24) and Mohamad Asif Sheikh (14) also chipped in valuable runs to the total. Malinda Karunarathne, Avishka Lakshan and Thilina Chamath took two wickets each for Baduraliya.

In reply, the local team failed to cope with the disciplined Nepali bowling and were bowled out in the 24th over without putting up any fight. Sagar Dhakal was the chief tormentor as the bowler completed a five-wicket haul in his miserly 5.1 overs that cost him just 18 runs. Pawan Sarraf and Kamal Singh Airee also took two wickets each for Nepal.

Nepal are pitted in Group 'B' against the hosts Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates in the ACC U-19 Asia Cup. The Group 'A' consists of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

Nepal qualified for Asia Cup after winning the ACC U-19 Eastern cricket tournament in Kuala Lumpur in July. Nepal had reached the Asia Cup semi-final of the tournament in 2017, their best run in the tournament till date. It was the same year, Nepal defeated India for the first time to register their only victory so far against the cricketing giants.