Some decent performance with ball and a half century by opener Aasif Sheikh gave Nepal first ever victory over Scotland as they pulled off a five-wicket win over the hosts and first victory in the Scotland Tri Series of the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 match in Glasgow on Wednesday.

Pacer duo Sompal Kami and Mohammad Aadil Alam grabbed three wickets each and wicketkeeper-batter Sheikh cracked 71 runs as Nepal made 146-5 in 25.1 overs after the home team, put to bat first, were bowled out for 144 runs in 42.5 overs.

With the first ever victory over Scotland after the second game, Nepal reclaimed fifth spot in the League 2 standings among seven teams. They have 17 points from as many matches while Scotland are second at 30 points from 22 games. Nepal were replaced by Namibia in the fifth spot after they lost the opening match of the Series against the South African opponents by 40 runs on Monday.

Pacer Kami made early inroads to put the hosts under pressure removing openers Kyle Coetzer and Matthew Cross for six and two runs, respectively. Aasif Sheikh caught wicketkeeper-batter Cross in the last delivery of the second over and Kushal Bhurtel caught Coetzer as third wicket in the first ball of eight over with 3-22 on board.

Pacer Karan KC took second wicket dismissing top order batter Calum MacLeod for 13 runs. He was caught by Aarif Sheikh. Captain Richie Berrington was the next wicket to fall after he was caught by Aasif off Kami with 4-29 on board.

Alam dismissed the next two batters George Munsey and Michael Leask for four runs each as the score read 6-46. But fighting performance from lower middle order batters prolonged the innings.

Gavin Main who came to bat at number nine held his nerve to score an unbeaten half century. He scored his career best 64 off 59. He hit seven fences and a six and shared a 49-run stand for the last wicket with Hamza Tahir, who gave ample support from the other end. Tahir, the last wicket to fall, faced 43 deliveries in his patient knock and scored just seven runs before he was caught by Pawan Sarraf in a delivery by Dipendra Singh Airee.

Mark Watt contributed 17 off 46 before being caught by Bhurtel in a delivery by captain Sandeep Lamichhane. Safyaan Sharif played 26-ball 16 before being caught by Bhurtel off Alam.

Bhurtel took four catches and became joint second highest catch taker in a single One-Day International match after South African Jonty Rhodes, who holds the record of five catches.

Alam conceded 31 runs in his 10-over bowling with a maiden while Kami gave away 40 runs in his 10-over hurl. Captain Lamichhane two wickets conceding 35 runs with a maiden over.

In the run chase, openers Bhurtel and Aasif played a 47-run stand for the first wicket before the former was dismissed for 27 runs off 28. He hit four fences before being caught by Cross in a delivery by Main.

But Aasif, dropped in the very first delivery he faced, contributed 71 runs off 62. He struck 10 fences and a six in his 62-ball knock. The player-of-the-match Aasif was caught by Adrian Neil in a delivery by Main. Rohit Paudel contributed unbeaten 34 runs off 31 that included five boundaries.

Dev Khanal (4), Dipendra Singh Airee (3) and Aarif Sheikh (1) were dismissed cheaply.

Nepal will play their next match against Namibia on Saturday before wrapping up the Series with a match against Scotland on Sunday.

The teams finishing on top three positions at the end of the Series, after equal 36 matches, will book a place for 2023 World Cup Qualifiers and the top five teams will retain One-Day International status. The bottom four will have to go through a playoff involving six teams for a place in Qualifiers.