Nepal Under-19 Cricket team crashed out of the ACC U-19 Asia Cup Cricket after suffering a three wicket loss at the hands of Afghanistan U-19 team.

In a match played at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan Ground -3 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Monday, the Nepal U-19 team batted first and werebundled out in 38.3 overs after scoring a meager 131 runs. The Afghanistan U-19 team achieved the target in 37.3 overs.

For Nepal, Rohit Kumar Poudel scored the highest 46 runs followed by Rashid Khan (30), skipper Aashif Sheikh (20). Five of Nepal U-19 players were out for duck.

Afghanistan U-19 bowler Azmatullah Omarzai took four Nepali wickets followed by Abdul Rahman and Qais Ahmad who claimed two each while Rizwanullah Murad and Naveed Ahmad took one each wicket of Nepali players.

For Afghanistan, skipper Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored the highest 26 runs followed by Azmatullah Omarzai who garnered 23 runs while Arif Khan remained not out and put 23 runs for his team to finish the match.

Nepali bowlers did perform well under pressure as they defended a low total. Surya Tamang was Nepal’s star bowler and took four Afghani wickets while Rashid Khan, Sagar Dhakal and Pawan Sarraf bagged one each Afghani wicket.

This is Nepal U-19’s second consecutive defeat in the tournament.

Earlier, India U-19, one of the strong contenders for the title, defeated Nepal by 171 runs in a match played on Saturday.

From Group-A, both India U-19 and Afghanistan U-19 have reached the semi-finals of the tournament after winning two matches each. Meanwhile, Nepal U-19 and UAE U-19 are out of the tournament.