Nepal defeated Papua New Guinea by 52 runs in the ICC World League Triangular One Day International series on Wednesday. Nepal’s opener, Asif Shaikh, made a century and Sandeep Lamichhane’s bowling was excellent, giving Nepal a victory over Papua New Guinea. With this victory, Nepal’s chances of directly qualifying for the World Cup remain intact.
Papua New Guinea, chasing a target of 298 runs for victory, was all out for 254 runs in 47.1 overs. Norman Norman Vanua
of PNG was the last man to be run out for 60 runs off 55 balls with 3 fours and 4 sixes.
Papua New Guinea had a great start against Nepal, with openers Tony Ura and Kiplin Doriga putting together a partnership of 77 runs in 11.2 overs. However, after Doriga was run out, Nepal made a decent comeback in the game.
Opener Kipling Doriga was run out for 26 runs off 34 balls with 3 fours and 1 six. Opener Tony was caught out for 50 runs off 44 balls with 9 fours. Ura spinner Sandeep Lamichhane was caught out by Arif Sheikh in the third ball of the 15th over.
On the third ball of the 14th over by Dipendra Singh Airee , Sesay Bau was caught at square leg by Sompal Kami for 3 runs. Dipendra bowled out Charles Amini in 14 balls. Sandeep bowled out Hiri Hiri for 8 runs in the second ball of the 33rd over.
Soon after, in the next ball,Chad Soper was caught out by Aarif Sheikh at first slip and Sandeep came close to a hat-trick. He could not get Norman Bhanuwa out in the hat-trick ball. Kushal Malla got captain Asad Bhala caught out by Arif Shaikh for 42 runs. He hit 2 fours and 2 sixes in 53 balls.
Riley Hekure, who went ahead to play a big shot on Sandeep’s ball, was stumped for 20 runs. Nepal’s spinner Sandeep Lamichhane took 4 wickets with 37 runs in 10 overs with 1 maiden. Dipendra Singh Airee
took 2 wickets with 37 runs in 9.1 overs. Kushal Malla took 1 wicket with 60 runs in 10 overs.
Before that, Nepal, who lost the toss and were invited to bat first, were bowled out for 297 runs in 49.1 overs. This was the highest total made by Nepal in its ODI history.
Nepal’s highest ODI total was 287 runs earlier. Two weeks ago against Namibia, Nepal scored 287 runs while chasing the winning target of 286 runs.
Nepal scored 278 runs in the second ODI match against Papua New Guinea last year at TU ground when they batted first in the ODI. In Nepal’s victory, opener Asif Shaikh played a 110-run century with 12 fours and 2 sixes in 110 balls.
This was the first century of Asif’s international cricket career. Asif completed his century in 101 balls with 10 fours and 2 sixes.
Asif is the fifth player from Nepal to score a century in ODIs after Paras Khadka, Rohit Poudel, Dipendra Singh Airee, and Kushal Bhurtel.
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