Rohit Kumar Paudel and Dipendra Singh Airee both hit half-centuries as Nepal national men’s cricket team defeated Ontario Cricket Club by 55 runs in a Twenty20 practice match in Canada on Sunday.

Airee smashed 54 runs off 27 balls and Paudel remained unbeaten in the 31-ball 71 in their 54-run stand for the fourth wicket as Nepal posted a huge target of 210 runs at the loss of four wickets at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground in King City.

Opting to bat first after winning the toss, opener Kushal Bhurtel was out cheaply for 2 but his opening partner Pawan Sarraf gave Nepal a bright start hitting 37 off 34 deliveries and shared a 40-run partnership with Airee for the third wicket. Dev Khanal contributed 20 runs.

Raymond Bynoe, Sehdev, Keenan Tinto and Hassan Mirza took a wicket each for Onatrio.

In reply, Ontario opener Anoop Chima was out for nought in the first delivery of the first over. But Jade Padmore (37) and Varun Sehdev (50) steadied the innings with a 69-run stand before Sompal Kami had Sehdev caught by Karan KC in the 9th over.

Naresh Bahadur Budhayer next took charge until the last over hitting 41 runs facing 31 balls but Budhayer’s partners all fell cheaply as Ontario were bundled for 154 runs.

Kami picked two wickets for Nepal. KC, Kishor Mahato and Mohamad Aadil Alam pocketed a wicket each.

This was Nepal’s second straight warm-up win over Ontario in two days. Nepal had defeated them by 69 runs in a fifty-over match on Friday.

Nepal will next play a two-match one-day international series against Canada on July 5 and 6.

Sandeep Lamichhane’s team will then travel to Scotland to participate in the Scotland Triangular Series of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2, set to begin from July 11.