Nepal's hope of gaining ODI status remains on course after Dipendra Singh Airee guided his side to a comfortable six wickets victory over Papua New Guinea in the seventh place playoff semi-final match of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers at Old Hararians ground in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Airee took four wickets from 4.4 overs and also clobbered a half-century to chase 115 runs target in the victory in the 23rd over. It was Nepal’s only victory against PNG in 50-over format after losing the previous two games.

Nepal have also entered into the playoff final after the victory.

Airee and Sandip Lamichhane, who also had four wickets, ripped apart PNG’s batting lineup to bowl them out for 114 runs in the 28^th over. Sompal Kami and Karan KC also took a wicket each.

Charles Amini top-scored with 19 runs for PNG. The 28-run partnership between Amini and Jason Kila (15) was the only highlight of PNG’s batting.

Nepal initially had some nervy moments during the run chase losing openers Gyanendra Malla (1) and Anil Kumar Sah (9) inside the third over. Skipper Paras Khadka scored 20 runs from 18 balls but lost his wicket to John Reva in the seventh over.

It was then the 67-run partnership between Airee (50) and Aarif Sheikh (26) which laid the foundation for the solid victory.

Nepal have secured ODI status from 2018 to 2022 after the Netherlands hammered Hong Kong by 44 runs in other play-off match of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers at Kwekwe in Zimbabwe on Thursday.

After defeating PNG, Nepal were waiting for the result of the match between the Netherlands and Hong Kong. 

Nepal, PNG, Hong Kong and Netherlands had failed to qualify for the Super Six round. Since, Netherlands have already become an ODI nation and PNG out of contention following today’s defeat, Nepal and Hong Kong are in contention for gaining the ODI status.