Kathmandu, Sept 27: Nepal suffers five wickets defeat in the first T20 International Tri-Series played at Singapore against Zimbabwe on Friday.
Despite Sandeep Lamichhane’s superb bowling Zimbabwe scored 133 with the loss of five wicket. Sandeep was superb after he dismissed three top order batsman in 0 score. But batsmen Ryan Burl (41) and Richmond Burumbami (40) guided their team to the victory.
Winning the toss, Nepal elected to bat first. Nepal scored 132 with the loss of 6 wickets. Dipendra Singh Airee top scored 40.
Lower order hard-hitting batsman Sompal Kami’s late blitz helped Nepal to post 132 runs.
Nepal made a disastrous start losing debutant opener Ishan Pandey cheaply inside the second over with just five runs on the board. Pandey trudged back to pavilion after hitting four runs at the Indian Association Ground today.
Aarif Sheikh promoted up the order could not grasp the opportunity as he was caught and bowled by Wellington Masakadza for eight runs.
With skipper Paras Khadka and Rockie batsman, Dipendra Singh Airee in the middle many expected them to rebuild the innings but it did not materialise as Khadka was caught in the deep long-on by Masakadza off Ryan Burl.
Khadka made 18 off 22 balls with three fours.
Dipendra Singh Airee top-scored for Nepal 40 runs off 33 balls studded with five-hit to the fence. After losing the wicket of Airee, Nepal was reeling at 95/6 in the 17th over.
However, Sompal Kami belted three sumptuous sixes over the cow corner to post at least a challenging total on the board. Sandeep Jora also chipped in with valuable 17 runs of 15 balls.
Zimbabwe’s bowler Sean Williams took two Nepali scalps whereas Masakadza, Chatara, Madziva and Ryal Burl chipped in with a wicket each.
In this tournament Nepal, Singapore and Zimbabwe have been playing tri-series T20 International.
