Nepal 160 for 3 (Malla 64*, Airee 62, Otieno 2-29)
Kenya 155 (Obuya 48, Vesawkar 4-28)
Kathmandu, Mar 13 –
Nepal thrashed Kenya by 7 wickets (with 118 balls remaining) in ICC WCL Championship at TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur.
Sharad Vesawkar’s four wickets plus 24 off 11 balls, and half centuries from captain Gyanendra Malla and Dipendra Singh Airee secured a convincing win for Nepal.
Mahaboob Alam removed Kenya’s opener Alex Obanda and Dhiren Gondaria in the fourth over. But Irfan Karim (38) and Collins Obuya (48) build some partnership and took the score to 93. And it was leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane who broke the stand by having Obuya stumped by Binod Bhandari in the 28th over. With the tight bowling from Mahaboob Alam, Sagar Pun, Basant Regmi and Sharad Vesawkar, Nepal kept the pressure and took the wickets on regular interval before Kenya collapsed from 151 for 6 to 155 all out in the 46.1 overs.
Chasing the modest total, Nepal lost opener Sunil Dhamala and Sagar Pun in the first spell from Otieno. But Malla (64*) and Airee (62) batted superbly to build valuable 111-run partnership to take Nepal inches closer to the win. After Airee fell for 62, just 31 required to win, Vesawkar came in and quick fired 24 off 11 balls to register the convincing win with 118 balls to spare.