A fiery spell from star leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane gave a huge scare to the fallen giants Zimbabwe in a Twenty20 triangular series match that Nepal eventually lost by five wickets in Singapore on Friday.

Chasing a modest 133-run target, Zimbabwe initially could not deal with the prowess of Lamichhane in the day-night match. But Zimbabwe overcame the early scare to chase down the total in 18.1 overs.

Lamichhane triggered the Zimbabwe collapse having Regis Chakabva caught by Aarif Sheikh even before the batsman opened his account. Lamichane returned to dismiss Tinotenda Mutombodzi and skipper Sean Williams, both also without scoring a run. Lamichhane finished with economical figures of 3-15 off four overs.

When Dipendra Singh Airee affected a run out of Brian Chari in the first ball of the fifth over, Zimbabwe appeared in dire straits. Timycen Maruma joined Ryan Burl in the middle and the two steadied the Zimbabwean ship putting on a 27-run stand for the fifth wicket.

Nepal skipper Paras Khadka clean bowled Maruma in the 10th over to rekindle some hopes. But that was as close as Nepal came to upsetting Zimbabwe as Burl and Richmond Mutumbami held firm to put on an unbroken 69-run stand to steer their team home.

Burl remained unbeaten on 41 off 36 deliveries with two sixes and three fours, while Mutumbami hit a quick-fire 40 off 28 balls with four sixes and a boundary.

Earlier, Nepal elected to bat first after winning the toss at the Indian Association Ground and posted 132-6 20 overs. Despite a poor start to their innings, a 27-run partnership between skipper Paras Khadka and Aarif Sheikh provided some respite for Nepal. However, Sheikh returned to the pavilion scoring only eight runs. Khadka also threw his wicket after scoring 18 to leave Nepal reeling at 38-3 by the eighth over.

Dipendra Singh Airee saved the Nepali blushes with 40 off 33 balls. Airee's knock included five hits to the fence. Sandeep Jora was also among the runs as he contributed 17 runs from 15 balls. Late in the innings, Sompal Kami featured in a quickfire cameo as the allrounder smashed three sixes on his way to 14-ball 25.

Debutants left-handed duo Ishan Pandey and allrounder Kushal Malla, who had made it to the squad for the tour in place of veterans Sharad Vesawkar and Basanta Regmi failed to cash in on the first opportunity at the senior level.

While Pandey scored only four runs, Malla was dismal with both batting and bowling. Having contributed just two runs with the bat, Malla leaked 23 runs in the 17th over which literally saw Nepal lose the grip on the match. The youngsters will only have lessons to learn from a bad defeat when hopes of a victory were high given a solid start to the second innings for Nepal. Nepal is playing against Singapore on Saturday.