Sagar Dhakal takes centre stage as Nepal win ACC U-19 Eastern Region C’ship

KATHMANDU: Nepal have won the Asia Cricket Council (ACC) U-19 Eastern Region 2019 cricket tournament as they beat Hong Kong by six wickets in the game held at Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday. With this win, Nepal have qualified for the 2019 ACC U-19 Asia Cup slated for August in Sri Lanka.

Nepal had won the toss and elected to field first in the final match at Kinrara Oval Stadium today.

Batting first, Hong Kong stumbled before putting up a three figure target on the scoreboard, making 95 runs, losing all their wickets before the completion of the 44th over.

In response, Nepal, riding on the opening partnership of 52 runs between Rit Gautam and Pawan Sarraf, chased the target in just 16.1 overs, scoring 96 with the loss of four wickets.

Opening batsman Sarraf top scored 39 off 36 balls with six boundaries to his credit– five fours and a six– before losing his wicket to Mohammad Hassan.

Gautam scored 13 runs off 14 balls while Khadak Bahadur Bohara added eight runs off 22 deliveries. Skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel scored 12(10) before getting caught out by Nasrulla Rana in Raunaq Kapur’s ball.

Raunaq Kapur claimed 2-15 from 2.1 overs, while Mohammad Hassan and Mohammad Hassan Khan took a wicket each for Hong Kong.

Earlier, Hong Kong batsmen were swept away by the ferocious bowling attacks of Sagar Dhakal and Kamal Singh Airee.

Sagar Dhakal was the pick of the Nepali bowlers taking 5-18 from his 10 overs. Meanwhile, Airee claimed 3-23 from eight overs further disrupting the pace of the Hong Kong batsmen. Kushal Malla and Tilak Raj Bhandari grabbed one wicket each.

Dhakal was declared Player-of-the-match.

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