An outstanding recovery from the lower middle order helped Nepal defeat Kuwait by 83 runs to keep their slim hopes of claiming the ACC U-19 Premier title alive at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Tuesday.

After the fourth round matches in the round robin league tournament, Nepal stay second in the points table with six points—two behind defending champions Afghanistan, who crushed Saudi Arabia by eight wickets to close in on title.

Afghanistan have a healthy run rate and only a huge margin defeat against Malaysia—which seems unlikely— on Thursday together with Nepal’s big win over Saudi Arabia can change the equation. Malaysia (6 points) can win the title themselves if Nepal lose to Saudi Arabia and overhaul Afghanistan on net run rate.

According to the Malaysia Cricket Association the top three finishers qualify for the ACC U-19 Asia Cup with its date and venue yet to be finalised. Since Afghanistan, Nepal and Malaysia cannot be overtaken by rest of the teams, all three teams have qualified for the U-19 Asia Cup which will also be participated in by Test playing Asian teams.

Nepal slumped to 66-6 inside 15 overs before a century stand from Dipendra Airee and Saurav Khanal them to 250-8. No 3 batsman Mohammad Mezan Ali was the only Kuwait batsman to offer resistance with an unbeaten knock before Nepal restricted them to 167-9 in 50 overs.

Kuwait innings revolved around Ali, who scored more than half the team’s total and was left stranded on 84 off 112 balls that included six fours and three sixes. Opener Mushtaq Ahmed (22) was their next best scorer for Kuwait.

Spinner Sushil Kandel was the pick of the Nepali bowlers with 2-16 off 10 overs. Prem Tamang took 2-36, while Aarif Sheikh and Airee had one scalp apiece.

Earlier, Nepal were reeling at 66-6 as they lost Sunil Dhamala (11), Ashish Dhami (four), Shankar Rana (eight), Sheikh (duck), Raju Rijal (15) and Rajbir Singh (naught). Airee and Khanal then staged a remarkable comeback sharing 130 runs for the seventh wicket.

Airee was the chief aggressor in the stand, smashing 85 off 91 balls that included nine fours and two sixes. After the fall of Airee, Khanal added another 48 runs for the eighth wicket with Tamang to make sure that they put enough runs on the board.  Khanal was out in the penultimate ball of Nepal innings making 73 off 115 balls. Tamang was unbeaten on 23 off 27 with one hit to the fence. Nepal’s total was also bolstered by 31 extra runs. Mohammad Fouzi picked up 3-34 for Kuwait.