Sports
Rohit Kumar Paudel into history books as youngest player to hit half century, as Nepal thump UAE to level series
Paudel became the youngest male player in history to score an international half-century, beating the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sahid Afridi to achieve the milestone at 16 years and 146 days.Sailendra Adhikari
Nepal's Rohit Kumar Paudel became the youngest male player in history to score an international half-century on Saturday, as Nepal registered a thumping victory over the UAE in the second One-Day International (ODI).
Paudel beat the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sahid Afridi to achieve the milestone at 16 years and 146 days.
Tendulkar was 16 years and 213 days when he scored 59 in a Test against Pakistan while Afridi previously held the record in ODI at 16 years and 217 days, when he smashed a century in just 37 balls against Sri Lanka.
Paudel’s 55 off 58 balls and yet another brilliant knock by opener Gyanendra Malla (44) helped Nepal score 242 for 9 in 50 overs—the national team's highest total in the ODI. Aarif Sheikh scored 29 while skipper Paras Khadka and Binod Bhandari scored 21 each to contribute to the total.
Some excellent bowling by Sompal Kami and Sandeep Lamichhane then helped Nepal defeat UAE by 145 runs.
Defending their record total, Sompal then ripped apart UAE’s opening batting order and Sandeep Lamichhane made light of the middle order to hand a comfortable victory to Nepal in the 20th over.
Sompal claimed five wickets from his 6.1 overs while Lamichhane had four to his name.
Five UAE batsmen returned to the pavilion without troubling the scores.
The margin of victory would have been even bigger had Ashfaq Ahmed and Muhammad Usman not scored 20 and 26 respectively.
It was a much improved performance by Nepal compared to their previous match on Friday when they were bundled out for 113 runs before losing the match by three wickets.
Having levelled the three match series 1-1, Nepal will now look to maintain the momentum in the series decider on Monday.
The ODIs will be followed by three-match Twenty20 International Series starting from January 31.