Miscellaneous
Khakurel, Malla guide Nepal to comfortable victory over UAE
Nepal began its ACC Premier League Cricket campaign with a convincing four wicket victory over UAE at the Selangor Turf Club in Malaysia on Thursday.Sailendra Adhikari
A solid half-century from Subash Khakurel and some big hitting from Vice Captain Gyanendra Malla took Nepal past the 192-run target set by UAE in 39.5 overs.
Nepal had a shaky start when opener Naresh Budayair was caught for two runs in the third over. But Gyanendra Malla's 47 from just 37 balls and a cautious 71 off 91 balls from another opener Subash Khakurel laid the platform for chasing an average total.
The 66-run partnership between Khakurel and Malla came to an end when Malla was trapped lbw in the 13th over after smashing seven boundaries and a six.
Khakurel then dominated the proceedings with a well-knitted 59 run partnership with skipper Paras Khadka (30) and another 38-run partnership with Sharad Bheswakar (16) to guide the Nepali side closer to the target. Khakurel's impressive batting was finally over in the 32nd over when he was caught by Amjad Ali off Fayyaz Ahmed's delivery.
Mehboob Alam (5), Binod Bhandari (9) and Basanta Regmi (8) were other contributors for Nepal.
Winning the toss and deciding to bowl first, Nepal took an early control of the match by claiming four early wickets for 81 runs. However, Swapnil Patil (76 off 95 balls) and Krishnachandran Karate's (36 off 69 balls) took UAE to an average total of 191 runs in 48.1 overs.
Sompal Kami and Mahaboob Alam, who made a comeback to the national squad after his excellent performance in the Senior One-day National cricket tournament, took three wickets each. Shakti Gauchan registered two wickets in his name and Sagar Pun claimed one.
The Premier League comprises of Nepal, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Oman, UAE and hosts Malaysia.




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