Test nation Bangladesh proved too mighty as the host defeated Nepal by eight wickets with 27 balls remaining.
At Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong, Nepal put up matured batting performance against the host to reach 126/5. Nepal lost opener Subash Khakurel at eight runs off 13 balls while his opening partner Sagar Pun scored 12 runs off 19 balls.
Gyanendra Malla started beautifully but Al-Amin Hossain trapped him LBW while he was on 13 runs off six balls.
Skipper Paras Khadka and Sharad Vesawkar put up the 85-run fourth wicket partnership, the highest partnership for Nepal in T20s. Khadka was bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza while attempting a scoop. Khadka blasted 41 runs off 35 balls including four boundaries. Vesawkar scored 40 runs off 43 balls before getting run out in the last ball of the innings. He slapped five boundaries.
Hossain claimed two wickets while Mortaza and Farhad Reza took a wicket each. Hossain was named man of the match for his 2 wickets off 4-over spell where he gave away 17 runs.
After the match, Nepali captain Khadka told the commentators that failing to rotate the strike resulted into relatively low score against an experienced side.
Chasing a not-so-difficult target, Bangladeshi openers Tamim Iqbal (30 runs off 22 balls) and Anamul Haque (42 runs off 33 balls) put up a 63-run partnership for the first wicket. Later Sabbir Rahman remained unbeaten with 21 runs off 20 balls and Shakib Al Hassan blasted 37 runs off 18 including four sixes. Bangladesh smashed altogether eight sixes in the innings to defuse Nepali bowling attack.
Basant Regmi claimed the wicket of Iqbal while Sagar Pun accounted for a bizarre run out of Haque.
Photo Courtesy: Cricinfo
Shakti Gauchan, who displayed a spirited man-of-the-match performance against Hong Kong, turned out to be the most expensive bowlers against Bangladesh, giving away 40 runs in four overs.
After the match, Nepal coach Pubudu Dassanayake said, “Batting was an achievement. I am not dissatisfied. If we coud add another 15-20 runs the, story could have been different.”
He added that Nepal had nothing to lose, “Nepal is a quality side, we have talents. We played quite well in qualifier. We had a opening problem, but this a solved now, Subas and Sagar played quite well. Paras is good player, he played upto his reputation. We missed Gyanendra in todays match, if he could scored a little, we could have a strong fight.”
Sharad Vesawkar, in the post match press conference also sounded positive despite the defeat. He said, “We are playing in world cup, this is big thing for us. We are happy with our performance. And we enjoyed the game. We are not used to playing on the grassy wicket like this. This made us a little uncomfortable in the beginning but after some time, we played up to our strength.”
Nepal will take on Afghanistan on Thursday.