Pradeep Airee sprayed colors all over the field as Nepal began the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Twenty20 Cup on a high note with a 76-run victory over lowly Maldives at the TU Cricket Ground.
Pradeep’s quickfire 59 off just 26 balls propelled Nepal to a brilliant start that saw the opening pair, Subash Khakurel on the other end, adding up 80 runs in 6.2 overs. The foundation was well utilized despite hiccups during middle overs as Nepal raced to 171 for 5 in 20 overs.
Maldives lost the initiatives early losing wickets and struggling to cope with bowling and never looked like reaching anywhere near the target. They were restricted to 95 for 7 in 20 overs in front of strong 8,000 home crowd.
Pradeep Airee completes fifty. Photo by Bikash Karki
Pradeep played the key knock hitting 8 fours and 4 sixes whereas Subash played a anchoring role with 20-ball 26 with just a four. His role was limited to giving strike to Pradeep until he misread Mohamed Saafee and saw his stumps broken.
Gyanendra Malla didn’t stay long, going out to Abdullah Shahid, making 2. Saafee added second wicket getting Subash as Nepal seemed losing the ground.
Paras Khadka (10 off 14) was unluckily run-out on non-striker’s end as Faiz managed to touch the ball on straight drive from Binod Bhandari that hit the stumps.
Binod too didn’t stay long going out for 15 to Faiz before Sharad Vesawkar and Manjeet Shrestha revived the innings and hit some brilliant shots. With 3 fours and a couple of sixes, Sharad reached 36 off 18 balls while Manjeet, making his debut in T20 and returning to national team after long gap, hit 20 off 16 with a couple of boundaries.
In reply, Maldives were troubled by bowling all the way. Paras began with a couple of wickets where as all other bowlers, except Amrit Bhattarai, claimed a wicket.
For Maldives, Neesham Nasir scored 20 not out and Faiz got 17.