Nepal succumbed to a six-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka U-23 in the curtain-raiser of the men's Twenty20 cricket match at the Tribhuvan University cricket ground in Kirtipur on Tuesday.

Put into bat first, the home team set a decent target of 173-5 despite losing opener Paras Khadka for just one run. The young Sri Lankan side reached 175-4 with five balls to spare. Sammu Ashan top scored for the winning team with an unbeaten 72 runs.

Having lost Khadka in the second over, Aarif Sheikh (19) and skipper Gyanendra Malla (21) did not last too long at the middle leaving Nepal at 3-51.

It was Dipendra Singh Airee who stabilised Nepal’s innings. He scored 72 runs and was associated with two half-century partnerships. He put on 56 runs with Binod Bhandari and added another 62 with Pawan Sarraf to anchor the Nepali innings. Airee hit four boundaries and three sixes in his 44-ball knock.

Bhandari contributed 21 runs off 23 before being bowled by Kamindu Mendis while Sarraf smashed a quick-fire 22 off 13 deliveries before being caught by Charith Asalanka.
Sri Lanka's Mendis claimed two wickets while Ashita Fernando, Kavishka Anjula and Duvindu Mendis grabbed a wicket each.

In reply, Sri Lankan showed urgency as opener Pathum Nissanka let himself loose, racing to 30 runs off 12 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes. But Sompal Kami got him caught behind in the last ball of the third over. The visitors lost another two wickets for just seven runs to find themselves tottering at 3-49.

But opener Fernando held one end and hit five fences and a six shared crucial 91 runs for the fourth wicket with Ashan to steer the Lankans to victory.

Ashan hit four boundaries and five sixes in his match-winning 44-ball knock while Ashen Bandara remained not out on 14 runs.
Pawan Sarraf of Nepal picked two wickets while Sompal Kami and Sushan Bhari bagged one apiece.

The cricket tournament features five teams in the round-robin league. Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives are other teams. The top two sides at the end of the league will compete for gold while the third and fourth teams will vie for bronze. While the Test-playing sides—Bangladesh and Sri Lanka—have fielded U-23 teams, non-Test playing sides have fielded full-strength squad. Bangladesh U-23 will square off against the Maldives, and Sri Lanka U-23 will face Bhutan on Wednesday.