Nepal lost the final of the Nepal Tri-Nation T20I Series to the United Arab Emirates by four wickets at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur on Friday.

Nepal, sent in to bat first after losing the toss, posted a moderate total of 162-8 in the allotted 20 overs, courtesy of a half-century by opener Kushal Bhurtel.

Bhurtel and his opening partner Aasif Sheikh scored 43 runs in the powerplay but the hosts were left frustrated after other batters failed to exploit a good start.

Aayan Afzal Khan (3-19) broke the opening partnership bowling out Aasif for seven and sent back Kushal Malla for one in the seventh over.

Bhurtel smashed six boundaries and three sixes to score his sixth T20I fifty that came off 29 balls but Zahoor Khan halted his spree in the eighth over.

Captain Rohit Paudel added 18 and Dipendra Singh Airee contributed 20 but both batters were undone by Ali Naseer in the first and the fourth balls of the 13th over.

Karan KC offered some breathing space with his 17-ball 23 late in the innings.

In the run chase, UAE openers, captain Muhammad Waseem and Aryansh Sharma, put on a 71-run partnership to set the tone for the victory.

Gulsan Jha ended their stand removing Waseem for 45 in the seventh over but Sharma (25) and Vriitya Aravind (26) continued the chase.

Basil Hameed added not out 22 off 16 balls to guide the UAE to 167-6 in 19.5 overs.

Nepal had defeated the UAE by seven wickets in the series opener and won by five wickets in the return fixture of the group stage. Nepal had also beaten Hong Kong by six wickets in their first meeting of the series and by 79 runs in the second leg to progress to the final.

The defeat also ended Nepal’s 16-match unbeaten streak at home under coach Monty Desai that dated back to February 17. During that run, Nepal won all eight home matches of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2, followed by an unbeaten run (except for the Premier Cup matches against Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, both of which was abandoned due to rain) to the ACC Premier Cup title. Desai was appointed the head coach of the Nepal national men’s cricket team on February 6.

The defeat will also serve as a wake up call to Nepal ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier that begins at TU Cricket Ground on October 30 and a bitter reminder of the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Global Qualifier A, where Nepal had lost to the UAE in the semi-finals and failed to qualify for the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Nepal are pitted alongside Malaysia, Oman and Singapore in Group A, while the UAE are placed in Group B with Bahrain, Hong Kong and Kuwait.

The finalists will book two slots from Asia at the 20-team 2024 T20 World Cup which takes place in the West Indies and the United States from June 4 to June 30 next year.