Nepal suffered consecutive defeats in the ICC World T20 Qualifiers being held in the UAE as Afghanistan registered a 34-run victory on Friday.
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium and the country with One Day status proved to be too mighty for Nepal.
Afghanistan put up 157/6 in the allotted 20 overs and restricted Nepal at 123/6.
Though Chandra Saud claimed the wicket of Shabir Noori (naught) in the very first over of the innings, opener Karim Sadiq and Mohammad Shahzad consolidate Afghanistan.
Sadiq and Shahzad put up 86-run partnership for the second wicket. Sadiq scored 52 runs off 39 balls including a boundary and three sixes while Shahzad faced 43 balls for identical score. Shahzad struck three boundaries and two sixes.
Nawroz Mangal chipped in with 27 runs off 21 balls while Mohammad Nabi remained unbeaten to add invaluable 16 runs.
Chandra Saud dismissed three Afghan batsmen while Nepali skipper Paras Khadka took two wickets. Shakti Gauchan claimed a wicket.
Nepali opener Anil Mandal is clean bowled by Dawlat Zadran of Afghanistan during their match on Friday in the ICC World T20 Qualifiers being held in the UAE. Photo: ICC
Chasing the huge target of 158 against the quality Afghan bowling was a daunting task for Nepali batsmen.
Paresh Lohani was dropped for Friday’s match and Anil Mandal joined Pradeep Airee for opening Nepali innings.Nepal’s expectation of getting good start shattered when Airee got out in the first ball.
Mandal scored 50 runs off 49 balls including four boundaries and a six in his attempt to anchor Nepali innings. Sharad Vesawkar scored 18 runs of 25 balls. In the later part of the innings, mounting required run rate pressurized Nepali batsmen and wickets kept on falling. Skipper Paras Khadka added 24 runs to make the defeat less humiliating.
Dawlat Zadran and Mohammad Nabi claimed two wickets each. After scoring brilliant half century, Karim Sadiq took a wicket to win the man-of-the-match trophy.
Nepal, who defeated Hong Kong and Denmark in their first two matches, had lost to Papua New Guinea on Thursday.
Following the successive defeats, Nepal remain at the fifth place in the group ‘A’ points table with four points from four matches. Unbeaten Afghanistan have 8 points from four matches. There are eight teams in the group.