Sports
Records galore as Nepal win historic ODI series against UAE
Nepali national cricket team made history by winning its first ever one-day international series against United Arab Emirates after defeating the hots in the third and final match of the 3-match ODI played at ICC Academy in Dubai on Monday.Sailendra Adhikari & Samuel Chhetri
Nepali national cricket team made history by winning its first ever one-day international series against United Arab Emirates after defeating the hots in the third and final match of the 3-match ODI played at ICC Academy in Dubai on Monday.
In the match, Nepal successfully cashed down its first ever ODI target of 254 runs, also the highest, in 44.4 overs losing six wickets.
The ODI series with UAE has come as a blessing for Nepali cricket as this is the first ODI series win for Nepal. Also, Nepal notched up their biggest ODI total scoring 242-9 in 50 overs with Rohit Kumar Paudel becoming the youngest male cricketer ever to score a half century in this format of the game at 16 years and 146 days old, beating the likes of Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi and India’s Sachin Tendulkar.
Before this, Nepal had played a two-match ODI Series with the Netherlands that ended at 1-1.
Earlier, late onslaught by UAE batsmen had taken the UAE score to 254 at the loss of six wickets.
Losing the toss and sent to bat first at the ICC Academy Oval in Dubai, UAE lost early wickets and were at 47 for 4 in the 21st over. But a hundred-run partnership between CP Rizwan (45) and Shaiman Anwar (87) steered them out of trouble and into a big total in the series deciding match.
Nepal lost its first wicket in 4.3 overs, as Binod Bhandari (9 runs) was caught by Ghulam Shabber off Mohammad Naveed.
However, skipper Paras Khadka and opener Gyanendra Malla stood firm on the crease and stabilised the Nepali innings.
Khadka played a captains knock and scored 115 off 109 balls and was declared man of the match. Malla scored 31 runs before being trapped lbw by Imran Haider in 14.4 overs.
Sompal Kami and Aarif Sheikh remained not-out scoring 26 and 21 runs respectively. Kami won the match for Nepal by hitting a six to wrap up the series.
Likewise, Sundeep Jora, who debut for Nepal, also put 19 precious runs on the score board followed by Rohit Kumar Poudel’s 16 runs while Dipendra Singh Airee returned back to the pavilion scoring 6 runs for Nepal.
For UAE, Imran Haider and Ashfaq Ahmed took two wickets each while Mohammad Neveed and Qadeer Ahmed took one each.
And for Nepal, Khadka and Karan KC took two wickets each while Kami and Sandeep Lamichhane claimed one each.
In the earlier two matches of the series, Nepal had lost the opening match by three wickets and won the second match by 145 runs.