Gyanendra Malla and Sarad Vesawkar shared a record partnership as Nepal registered it’s second win in as many days beating Qatar by seven wickets at the Royal Military College Ground of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the ACC Trophy Elite 2008.
The pair partnered for unbeaten 126 to take Nepal home in the 38th over while chasing Qatar’s 171 all out in 47.2 overs.
The 126-run partnership is the highest for Nepal for any wicket. Previous best was 125 scored twice in 2003 against Maldives in space of two days – first by Mehboob Alam and Paresh Lohani and next one by Raju Khadka and Binod Das.
Gyanendra scored 76 off 84 balls with five fours and two sixes – it was his sixth half-century for the national team which is the most by any Nepali player. Sarad got 51 off 104 balls with three fours – his second for national team. He had scored 48 a day earlier against Hong Kong.
Beside the pair, Kanishka Chaugai got his first international runs since his return from US scoring 20 off 33 balls while Paresh Lohani (4) and Paras Khadka (3) failed. Paresh had scored 42 and Paras a match winning 81 against Hong Kong. For Qatar, Abbas Khan took two wickets for 40 runs off his 10 overs while Usman Malik got one.
Earlier, Qatar won the toss and elected to bat first. They had a slow but steady opening with captain Omer Taj and Mohd Jehangir added 46 for the opening stand in 15 overs before Binod Das claimed two wickets to undone Jehangir (13) and Faisal Noor (7). The run-rate slowed down and Omer stayed till 25th over before being bowled out by Basant Regmi for 48. His knock lasted 77 balls in which he hit five fours and two sixes.
Then it was Shakti and Basant who had the say in the ground as they shared five more wickets as Qatar struggled to score. Wicket-keeper Rushrat Ali made unbeaten 40 in 54 balls with two sixes while last man Usman Malik contributed handy 15 as the gulf nation got moderate total of 171. Basant gave away 30 runs for three wickets as Sarad and Amrit Bhattarai took a wicket apiece.
Nepal plays Singapore on Monday.
SCORECARD
| Round | League |
| Toss | Qatar |
| Umpires | Anisur Rahman & Suhas Phadkar |
| Scorers | Hamidah Ramlan & Puteh Norsila |
| MoM | Shakti Gauchan of Nepal |
| Points | Qatar 0, Nepal 2 |
| Result | Nepal win by 7 wickets |
Qatar Innings
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| O Taj* | b B Regmi | 48 | 77 | 5 | 2 | |
| M Jehangir | c P Lohani | b B Das | 13 | 43 | 1 | 0 |
| F Noor | c B Regmi | b B Das | 7 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| S Akhtar | c M Chhetri | b B Regmi | 13 | 31 | 0 | 0 |
| T Sajjad | c P Lohani | b SP Gauchan | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| A Packer | lbw | b SP Gauchan | 6 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| R Ali+ | not out | 40 | 54 | 0 | 2 | |
| I Mirza | c G Malla | b S Vesawkar | 10 | 19 | 1 | 0 |
| A Khan | c B Regmi | b SP Gauchan | 6 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| S Badshah | lbw | b B Regmi | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| U Malik | c M Chhetri | b A Bhattarai | 15 | 11 | 0 | 2 |
| extras | (b0 lb5 w7 nb0) | 12 | ||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 171 |
| FOW 1-46(M Jehangir) 2-53(F Noor) 3-89(O Taj) 4-90(T Sajjad) 5-98(A Packer) 6-100(S Akhtar) 7-122(I Mirza) 8-143(A Khan) 9-154(S Badshah) 10-171(U Malik) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| M Alam | 4 | 1 | 18 | 0 |
| B Das | 7 | 2 | 24 | 2 |
| A Bhattarai | 6.2 | 0 | 31 | 1 |
| P Khadka | 6 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| B Regmi | 9 | 1 | 30 | 3 |
| SP Gauchan | 10 | 3 | 25 | 3 |
| S Vesawkar | 5 | 0 | 24 | 1 |
Nepal Innings
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| P Lohani | c O Taj | b A Khan | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| K Chaugai | c A Khan | b U Malik | 20 | 33 | 2 | 0 |
| S Vesawkar | not out | 51 | 104 | 3 | 0 | |
| P Khadka | c R Ali | b A Khan | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| G Malla | not out | 76 | 82 | 5 | 2 | |
| extras | (b0 lb2 w15 nb1) | 18 | ||||
| TOTAL | 3 wickets for | 172 |
| FOW 1-4(P Lohani) 2-36(K Chaugai) 3-46(P Khadka) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W |
| A Khan | 10 | 0 | 40 | 2 |
| U Malik | 9.3 | 1 | 31 | 1 |
| P Anwaruddin | 6 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| S Akhtar | 4 | 0 | 20 | 0 |
| S Badshah | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| R Ali | 4 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| T Sajjad | 1 | 0 | 16 | 0 |
| I Mirza | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 |