A century from skipper Paras Khadka guided Nepal to a convincing win over Singapore as they thumped the hosts by nine wickets in the second match of the T20 Tri-Series at the Indian Association Grounds in Singapore on Saturday.

Skipper Khadka played a scintillating innings remaining unbeaten at 106 runs off 52 as Nepal chased down the modest target of 152 runs for the loss of one wicket with four overs to spare. Khadka’s century, the first for a Nepali batsman at an international Twenty20 match, included nine sixes and seven fours. Prior to this, Khadka himself held the highest run record for Nepal in Twenty20 Internationals scoring 86 runs against Malaysia during a bilateral series three months ago.

Khadka who opened the innings today with Ishan Pandey appeared determined right from the beginning to secure a victory for Nepal after suffering a defeat against Zimbabwe on Friday. While Nepal had wasted their opportunity against Zimbabwe following an early tumbling of wickets for the African nation, sour was never to be the fate on Saturday.

Despite losing Pandey on the third ball of the second over, Khadka paired with Aarif Sheikh to ensure the victory with his hard hitting knock. Khadka and Sheikh featured in the 145 run partnership, fifth highest partnership in Twenty20 Internationals. Pandey, who had debuted for Nepal in the first match of the series, returned to the pavilion with five runs under his belt. When Nepal had just nine runs on the board, Sheikh came in, went on to build a solid partnership with Khadka and was composed himself scoring 39 runs from 38 balls hitting the fence five times.

Earlier, winning the toss Singapore elected to bat first. Rohan Rangarajan was the first Singapore wicket to fall as he was caught behind by Binod Bhandari off Karan KC. Surendran Chandramohan was looking dangerous with five boundaries in his score of 35 runs before he was bowled by Sushan Bhari.

Skipper Tim David continued to lead the Singapore charge scoring the highest 64 runs while remaining unbeaten. The-23-year-old's matured innings included four sixes and three fours. David plays in the Big Bash, Australia's franchise league, where he debuted for Perth Scorchers in the 2017-18 season.

When Manpreet Singh fell leg-before-wicket to KC, Singapore were in a commanding position of 102 runs in 14.3 overs. However, a disciplined bowling thereafter curtailed the flow of runs and Nepal were able to contain Singapore from posting a massive target.

Hosts Singapore had earlier pipped Nepal in the ICC T20 World Cup Asia Qualifiers, the final gateway to the Global Qualifiers. Nepal will now aim to avenge the first match defeat against Zimbabwe as the two sides go head to head again on Tuesday. The tournament featuring three teams is being played in the double round robin format and the group topper will claim the championship trophy.

Following the conclusion of the triangular series in Singapore, Nepal will head to Muscat, Oman to feature in the five nation series. Hosts Oman, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Ireland and Nepal will compete in the tournament.