Nepal registered a five-wicket victory over hosts Italy in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 4 cricket, but the win brought more concerns than celebrations.
After asking Italy to bat first, Nepal bowled it out for lowly 71 in 33.1 overs. Nepal’s chase was however not on the par with the bowling as it lost five wickets while reaching the target in 25 overs.
Mehboob Alam hit a six to end the match in Nepal’s favor. He was not out on 16 along with Sharad Vesawkar (10) while top-order failed to cope with the bouncing astro-turf.
In-form Anil Mandal and Gyanendra Malla were both out without scoring while Mahesh Chhetri (19), Shakti Gauchan (12) and Paras Khadka (9) were other batsmen out. H Jayasena took two wickets for Italy.
Earlier, in a rain-affected match which was reduced to 40-over-a-side, Nepal elected to field first and the bowlers claimed regular wickets to bowl out the hosts for a lowly total.
Amrit Bhattarai was the pick of Nepali bowlers taking 3 wickets for 8 runs in 6.1 overs while Paras Khadka, Shakti Gauchan and Basant Regmi each took two wickets. Binod Das took a wicket.
Only four Italian batsmen reached double digit, H Jayasena (16), P Petricola (15), H Patrizi (13) and A Northcote (10).
In the other match of the day, USA defeated Tanzania by 10 wickets completing a chase to 129 in 13th over.
Nepal scheduled match against USA on Monday will not be played for the playing conditions of the event states that all teams should play equal number of matches. On Sunday, the match between Argentina and Cayman Islands was abandoned and only that match will be replayed with all three matches of the first day going as the no result.