KATHMANDU, Nov 29: Nepal secured fifth place in the ACC Twenty-20 Elite Cup Cricket Tournament held in the UAE after defeating Singapore by nine wickets in the play-off match held at the Sharjah Stadium on Sunday.
Despite beating Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, Nepal failed to secure a place in the last four for the second consecutive time after they failed to win over Oman and Malaysia in the group stage.
Nepal restricted Singapore to 89 runs in 19.4 overs. In reply, Nepal achieved the target with 32 balls to spare.
Deependra Chaudhary and Ramesh Budha Air remained unbeaten, hitting 49 and 32 runs, respectively. This is the highest score (49) by any Nepali batsman in any international T-20 tournament. Earlier, in the first edition in Kuwait in 2007, Deependra had the record of hitting 49 runs unbeaten against Qatar.
Deependra, who added 43 runs in the previous match against Bahrain, struck four boundaries and a six, facing 40 balls, on Sunday. He was declared man-of-the-match.
Naresh, who batted for the first time in any international match, hit 32 off 39 balls with three boundaries. Previously, in his debut match against Bahrain, he did not get chance to bat. The duo played an unbeaten partnership of 77 runs after Mehboob Alam was out for two runs.
Binod Das and Sanjam Regmi remained the main factors who restricted Singapore to a low score as they claimed three wickets each. Binod conceded 21 runs in his 3.4-over spell and Sanjam gave 19 runs in four overs. Binod hauled the highest 10 wickets for Nepal in the tournament.
Left hand spinners Shakti Gauchan and Basanta Regmi shared one wicket apiece. SK Sansuwa of Singapore contributed 25 runs for the team.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan and UAE have entered the final of the tournament.
The joint winners of the previous edition Afghanistan thrashed Kuwait by eight wickets. Afghanistan achieved the 116-run target in 16.4 overs.
Likewise, the hosts UAE beat Oman by a huge margin of eight wickets. UAE achieved the target of 51 runs in 8.1 overs.
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