Sri Lanka registered an eight-wicket win over Nepal in the duo’s first match of the 2025 U19 Asia Cup at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai on Saturday. Of the eight participating teams divided into two groups of four each, Nepal and Sri Lanka are in Group B alongside Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Invited to bat first after losing the toss, Nepal had a tough time against the Sri Lankan bowling attack. The first-wicket partnership of 30 runs between openers Sahil Patel and Niraj Kumar Yadav was the only scenario where Nepal displayed decent batting.

However, after Yadav (10 off 18) and Patel (12 off 28) departed with the team’s score at 30 runs, there were no other significant partnerships. Sethmika Seneviratne almost single handedly destroyed Nepali batting order.

From bagging the wickets of the two of the first three Nepali batters—Patel and Vansh Chhetri (0 off 11)—Seneviratne had Dilsad Ali and Dayanand Mandal out for a duck while Bipin Sharma departed after opening his account with a single. Alongside Seneviratne’s fifer, Rasith Nimsara, Vigneshwaran Akash, Dulnith Sigera and Chamika Heenatigala picked a wicket each for Sri Lanka as they bundled out Nepal for a paltry 82 in 28.5 overs.

In a critical note, none of the Nepali batters had a bigger individual score than the runs they earned from extras. Sri Lankan bowlers gave away 19 runs in extras (four leg byes and 15 wides).

In turn, Sri Lanka chased the target with 211 balls to spare. Mandal was able to send back Viran Chamuditha (10 off 9) as the first wicket, while Kithma Withanapathirana (2 off 2) got run out as the second wicket.

However, the other Sri Lankan opener Dimantha Mahavithana (39 off 49) saw the target chased in 14.5 overs with the support of Kavija Gamage (24 off 29).

The top two teams from each group after a single round-robin league stage qualify for the semi-finals. Nepal still have two more games to play in the group—against Bangladesh on Monday and Afghanistan on Wednesday.