Nepali national cricket team defeated Indian Railways by 5 runs, in it’s practice tour to the Indian capital, at at the Roshanara Club ground.
Put to bat first, Nepal scored 135 for 9 in the T20 match and restricted Indian Railways at 132 for 7. Binod Bhandari scored the highest 42 off 35 with five hits to the fence. Gyanendra Malla scored 31 off 34. Opener Subash Khakurel (13), Sagar Pun (15), skipper Paras Khadka (5), Basanta Regmi (12), Sharad Vesawakar (4) and Pradeep Aire (11) contributed for Nepal.
Subash Khakurel and Sagar Pun enter the ground, as Nepal was put in to bat by Indian Railway team. Photo: Raman Shivakoti
For Indian Railway, Karan Thakur and Hitesh Kadam claimed three wickets apiece while Shamshul Huda claimed two and Prashant Awasti took one wicket.
In the run chase, Hemant Singh’s 82 off 64 went in vain for Indian Railway. Singh was caught by Malla in the 20th over. Pankaj Chaudhary (25) was the only other batsman for Indian Railway to reach double figure.
Nepal’s Gauchan and Bhattarai pocketed two wickets apiece while Jitendra Mukhiya and Khadka took one wicket each.
Nepal will play its next match against Invitational XI at the Bharatnagar Academy ground on Monday. Nepal is in India to prepare for the World T20 Qualifiers, which will be held in UAE in November and ICC World Cup Qualifiers to be held in New Zealand in January 2014.