KATHMANDU, Feb 28: Two days after facing defeat against Rajwada cricket team, visiting Nepal overcame the same team by 83 runs on Tuesday in its second practice match of India tour played at the Gautam Buddha University Ground in Greater Noida, India.
Nepal had lost to the same team by 47 runs on Sunday despite 104 runs from stand-in skipper Gyanendra Malla. On Tuesday as well, Gyanendra came up with instrumental batting. He was five runs short of century before being dismissed in the 50-over format game.
Nepal is in a week-long tour of India to prepare for its upcoming matches against Kenya to be held on March 11 and 13 at the TU ground, Kirtipur. The team is without skipper Paras Khadka since he is recuperating after undergoing appendicitis surgery on February 18. He will join training with the national team after the team returns home on March 3.
Put to bat first after losing the toss, Nepal made 247/7 at close and bowled out Rajwada at 164 runs in 37.3 overs. Openers Gyanendra Malla (95 runs) and Sunil Dhamala (44 runs) gave a solid start to Nepal putting up a 93-run partnership for the first wicket. Gyanenra hit four fences and a six in his knock of 115 balls before being stumped by Narendra Toma in the 40.3 over. Sunil cracked five boundaries in his 72-ball knock.
Mehboob Alam was the other remarkable contributor for Nepal scoring 30 runs from 22 deliveries.
Aarif Sheikh was not out on 24 runs and Basant Regmi on 12 runs. Sagar Pun contributed 17 runs while Sharad Vesawkar (7 runs), Dipendra Singh Airee (2 runs) were out cheaply. Binod Bhandari out for a duck.
Rajwada bowler Madhur Khatri and Sushil Khatri bagged two wickets each while Ashok Singh and Naresh Nama grabbed one apiece.
Nepal came up with disciplined bowling and tight fielding to put Rajwada under pressure in its innings. Rajwada lost wickets in regular interval and was restricted to 63/5 in 15.5 overs. However, middle order batsman Madhur Khatri tried to anchor the innings with 42 runs off 63 deliveries before being trapped leg before by Sagar Pun.
Ashok Singh was the second highest scorer for Rajwada with 33 runs under his belt before he became victim of Sagar's bowling. He was also trapped leg before. Mohammad Safi was the other remarkable contributor scoring 23 runs. Openers Kapil Yadav contributed 24 runs and Rahul Tomar 13 runs.
Nepali bowler Sompal Kami, Sagar Pun and Sandip Lamichhane pocketed two wickets each.
Sompal gave away 13 runs in his five-over spell while Sagar conceded 33 runs in his eight-over bowling with a maiden over. Sandeep conceded 17 runs in his 4.3-over bowling.
Gyanendra's ton in vain as Nepal loses first practice match
