Nepal clinched fifth position in the ACC Twenty20 Elite Cup after beating Singapore by 9 wickets in the fifth-place playoff at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Electing to bat first, Singapore was bowled out for 89 runs in 19.4 overs with Binod Das and Sanjam Regmi sharing six wickets. Dipendra Chaudhary matched the highest T20 individual score and Naresh Budair came in flying colors in his first-innings as Nepal won in 14.2 overs.
Two wickets in two balls put Singapore on backfoot after they start well to go 21/0. C R Suryawanshi was run out for 14 off 8 balls and Buddhika Mendis went next ball – the first wicket to former captain Binod.
Singaporean innings lacked the partnership as spinners took the charge. Basant Regmi and Shakti Gauchan got a wicket each while off-spinner Sanjam grabbed three wickets for 19 runs in 4 overs.
Topscorer of the innings SK Sansua made 25 in 22 balls with a four and two sixes while other major contributors were CR KUmarage (18) and Pramodh Raza (13). Binod ended the innings with two wickets in the last over to finish 3/21 in 3.4 overs.
Mehboob Alam tried to play patiently to make up for his failures when Nepal began the chase. But he was undone by Sansua after scoring 2 in 7 balls.
Dipendra and Naresh, who was playing his first innings as he did not bat in his debut match against Bahrain yesterday, partnered unbeaten 77 runs for second wicket to take Nepal to victory.
Dipendra scored 49 not out in 40 balls with four boundaries and a six. He matched his own and nation’s highest individual score in T20. He had scored unbeaten 49 against Qatar in 2007.
Naresh made 32 in 39 balls with three fours.
In other matches played on the day, UAE and Afghanistan entered the final with easy victories. UAE defeated Oman by six wickets after bowling them out for 50 in 15 overs with Moin Shahid taking 5 wickets.
Afghanistan beat Kuwait by 8 wickets after bolwing them out for 115 in 18.1 overs. Nowraz Mangal scored unbeaten 51 for the winners.
Malaysia took the seventh position beating Saudi Arabia by 5 runs after scoring 201. Qatar beat Hong Kong by 7 wickets to take ninth place and Bahrain beat China by 93 runs to take 11th position.