Nepal shattered Hong Kong’s chance to enter the final of the Women’s T20 Quadrangular Series in Uganda on Friday. Nepal defeated Hong Kong by six wickets in the duo’s final league-stage game at Entebbe Cricket Oval.

Hong Kong were playing a must-win game against Nepal as they needed two points to book a place in the final. But the loss led Hong Kong to wait for the final league game between Uganda and Namibia.

“If luck goes our way and we get to the finals, that’s great for us. But we should play to win,” Natasha Miles, Hong Kong’s captain said in the post-match presentation after the loss against Nepal.

Hong Kong required either Namibia or Uganda to lose by a large margin so that they can challenge the loser on net run rate. But the result didn’t go in their favour.

Uganda, posting the target of 120 runs, were able to bundle out Namibia just for 45 runs. Still, Namibia’s net run rate did not fall below Hong Kong’s.

With six points each from six games, Namibia and Hong Kong had a net run rate of -0.23 and -0.38, respectively.

Praising the knock of Nepali opener Samjhana Khadka, skipper Indu Barma, in the post-match presentation, stated that her team would come stronger in the next game.

Khadka, the player of the match, fell short of three runs for her half century. However, Hong Kong’s Shanzeen Shahzad’s first half-century of the tournament could not help her team.

Rajmati Airee bagged three wickets against Hong Kong while Indu Barma claimed two; Puja Mahato and Ishwari Bist took one each.

Nepal had lost to Hong Kong in their first game of the series on March 10. But Barma’s side bounced back in the second game on Friday. Now, the duo will play on March 16 for the third place in the series; which will also work as the decisive match of the teams’ best-of-three.