Nepal registered their second win in the ongoing ACC Men’s U16 East-Zone Cup by defeating Japan on Tuesday. The young Rhinos won by nine wickets in what was their second group-stage game of the event.

Of the 10 teams, divided into two groups of five, Nepal, Japan, Singapore, Bhutan, and Indonesia make up Group A. Hosts Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and the Maldives are in Group B.

Nepal, also the defending champion, faced Singapore in their first game of the tournament on Sunday. They won the match by six wickets while chasing 139.

On Tuesday, after winning the toss, Japan decided to bat first. An emerging country in cricket, Japan’s youngsters, however, could only take their score to 80 runs despite taking the first inning to the 35th over.

Japan lost their first wicket in the third over when opener Hugo Tanikelly got caught by Shubham Khanal in the spell of Abhay Yadav, who also claimed the third wicket. The ball was safeguarded once again by Khanal as he caught Hugo’s opening partner, Monty Harahinze, in the next over; this time, the bowler was Sushil Bahadur Rawal.

However, after Khanal took his first wicket, bowling out Luke Mynard in the 11th over, he went on to register a fifer. Khanal then took care of Skyler Nakayama Cook (5 off 13), skipper Charlie Harahinze (36 off 48), Gabby Harahinze (13 off 30) and Eric Harrison (0 off 1).

It was Nepali skipper Bipin Prasad Sharma who took the final wicket, his first of the game, bowling out Juto Ball for a duck in 18 deliveries.

As Nepal had 300 deliveries to chase the paltry 81, the opening pair tried taking it easy. With only five runs in 2.4 overs, opener Joy Thapa (1 off 7) departed as the first wicket in the penultimate ball of the over.

Meanwhile, Thapa’s opening partner Prashiddha Jaishi, who was not out at 55 off 97 in the win over Singapore two days ago, scored 33 off 37 on Tuesday. Shiwansh Bajgain, the wicketkeeper-batsman, contributed 38 off 42 as he and Jaishi chased the low total in 86 deliveries (14.2 overs).

Kaisei Kobayashidoggett was the only wicket-taker for Japan. It was the first loss for Japan; they had defeated Bhutan by 215 runs in their first game on June 22.

Nepal will now play Indonesia on June 29. They end their group-stage fixtures facing Bhutan on the first day of July.