Nepal earned third win in the ACC Twenty20 Elite Cup defeating lowly Bahrain by 7 wickets at the Al Dhaid Cricket Village to finish third in Group B and the rights to play 5th-place playoff against Singapore tomorrow.
Invited to bat first, Bahrain scored 157/8 in 20 overs after early hiccups. Nepal needed 18 overs to complete the victory and lost three wickets on the way.
Mehboob Alam gave Nepal early breakthroughs taking two wickets in two balls in the second over. Binod Das got one next over as Bahrain went down to 16/3 in 3 overs.
It was opener Imran Sajjad and Haroon Naseer who got the momentum going. They added 54 runs before Sajjad was bowled by captain Paras Khadka. He scored 44 off 39 balls with three fours and three sixes.
Two more wickets fell quickly – one for offspinner Sanjam Regmi and other as run out – with score reading 79/6 in 11 overs.
Joy for bowlers ended there as Naseer and Shahzad scored aggressively. The pair added 72 runs before both were oust by Binod on the last over. Naseer scored 53 in 36 deliveries with three fours and two sixes while Shahzad got 29 in 26 with a four and a six.
In reply, Nepal had no better start chasing the highest score against them in Twenty20. Mehboob was bowled in the first ball he played.
Other opener Dipendra Chaudhary and No 3 Binod Bhandari added 40 runs before Binod got out on 15 off 12 balls. He was undone by Sameer Yousuf.
Dipendra continued till 11th over but then mistimed Yousuf to go down on 43. His 36-ball knock included four boundaries.
Gyanendra Malla and Paras Khadka then played aggressively to help Nepal win in 18 overs and bear no more damage. Gyanendra remained unbeaten on 48 off 30 balls with five fours while Paras scored 47 off 29 balls with six fours and a six.
Paras was adjudged man of the match.
In other matches of the day, Oman defeated Kuwait by 86 runs. Both proceeded to the semifinals with Kuwait taking on Afghanistan who defeated hosts UAE by a wicket. UAE will play Oman in the other semifinal.
Malaysia, who had a chance of overtaking Nepal for Group B third-position with a big win, only managed 16-run victory over Qatar. Malaysia now played Saudi Arabia for the seventh-place. Saudi Arabia lost to Singapore by two runs in the battle for Group A third position.
Hong Kong defeated China by 75 runs in the other match and will now play Qatar for 9th place playoff and China meets Bahrain for the 11th place playoff.
| POINTS TABLE | |||||||
| Group – A | Match | Won | Lost | Tie | Pts | NRR | |
| 1 | Afghanistan | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 4.46 |
| 2 | UAE | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3.81 |
| 3 | Singapore | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0.11 |
| 4 | Saudi Arabia | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | -0.01 |
| 5 | Hong Kong | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2 | -0.81 |
| 6 | China | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -6.23 |
| Group – B | |||||||
| 1 | Oman | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2.56 |
| 2 | Kuwait | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 1.45 |
| 3 | Nepal | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | -0.02 |
| 4 | Malaysia | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | -0.09 |
| 5 | Qatar | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2 | -1.10 |
| 6 | Bahrain | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -3.33 |