Nepal bags first win in Canada tour

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Oct.1: The Nepali men’s national cricket team finally ended their winning drought after beating Oman by a 37-run in the Canada Twenty20 Series on Monday. 

The win came for Nepal after 11 games. It was also a first win on the Canada tour. 

Nepal lost all their Cricket World Cup League 2 tri-series matches against Canada and Oman. 

Nepal also made a poor start in the T20 series by losing their opener against host Canada by 14 runs. 

Put on to bat first at King City, Nepal added 176 runs losing six wickets in 20 overs. Oman, in reply, were all out in 19.1 overs with 139 runs on the scoreboard. 

One man down Shoaib became the top scorer for Oman with a 39-ball 45 that included two sixes and four boundaries.

Shoaib tried to steady the batting after Oman reeled to 28/4 in 7.1 over. He, however, fell as the sixth wicket in 14.2 overs, Kushal Bhurtel making him catch out by Karan. 

Rafiullah was another batter who contributed to Oman with his quick-fire 12-ball 33 that included four maximums and one boundary. Nepal’s pick of the bowler Karan KC, however, dismissed Rafiullah as the ninth wicket at the hand of Sandeep Lamichhane.

KC, who trapped Kashyap Prajapati (0) lbw in his first ball, picked his second wicket Shakeel Ahmed for a duck in 16.2 overs. Karan finished with a figure of 3-36. 

Khalid Kail (11) and Pratik Athavale (15) were other double-digit scorers for Oman. Fayyaz Butt remained not out with 17 runs.

Kushal and Gulsan Jha finished with two wickets each. Rija Dhakal, Dipendra Singh Airee and Sandeep Lamichhane also claimed one wicket apiece in the dismissal of Oman.

Earlier, Nepal rode on to Gulshan’s not-out blitz of 17-ball 40 runs to score 176 runs. Player of the match Gulshan smacked three sixes and three fours.

Dipendra also remained not out with a 5-ball 18 that included two sixes and one four. 

Nepal made a decent start with Openers Anil Sah and Dev Khanal adding identical 27 runs for the 39-run first-wicket partnership. Coming at two-man down, Kushal Malla also made a significant contribution by scoring 30 runs off 26 balls. 

Dev Khanal and Captain Rohit Paudel returned to the dugout for just two runs. Aqib picked three wickets while Shakeel, Fayyaz and Zeeshan Maqsood claimed one wicket from Nepal. 

Nepal will look to continue its winning form as they meet Canada on Tuesday.