All rounder Sunil Dhamala starred with the ball as Nepal began their ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifiers campaign with a crushing nine-wicket victory over Papua New Guinea (PNG) at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday.

Dhamala, also the opening batsman of the team, picked up five wickets with his part time spin to bundle out PNG for a paltry 48 in 28.2 overs. Nepal reached 50-1 in 9.1 overs losing opener Sandeep Sunar (four) in the third over before Dhamala and Karki completed a successful chase.

Dhamala also top scored with the bat making 24 off 35, while Sunar chipped in 16 off 15. Both batsmen hit two boundaries each. The win meant a desired start for Nepal who are desperate to join the elites of the game in next year’s U-19 World Cup to be hosted by Bangladesh. Nepal’s last appearance in the U-19 World Cup was in 2012 in Australia but they missed out on a berth for 2014.

Once giants in Asia’s age group cricket among non-Test playing nations, Nepal had started losing grip with the emergence of Afghanistan. They had finished runners-up behind Afghanistan in the 2013 ACC U-19 Premier

and left to join the current five-team qualifiers from where only the winners are guaranteed a place in the U-19 World Cup.

Coach Jagat Tamatta said his side executed the plans pretty well. “We played according to our plans. Since the overnight rain made the wicket damp, we were already prepared with the plans to field first if we win the toss and it went accordingly. We knew that bowling at a tight line would give us wickets,” said Tamatta.

Right arm medium bowler Aarif Sheikh opened the flood gates for Nepal in the third over dismissing opener Vagi Guba (three) before Dhamala regularly struck to leave PNG reeling. Dhamala took 5-15 in his 10-over spell. PNG were heading towards even humiliating total at 23-9 by the end of 20th over before Nou Toua (11) and Lohia Guba (13) took them close to 50-run mark.

Sheikh finished with the figures of 3-7 from 8.2 overs, his wicket including that of Guba who had hit the only two sixes of the game. Tamatta said allowing Dhamala to bowl all 10 overs was also the continuity of the plans. “We wanted to give him two or three overs in the beginning but after he kept on striking, we decided to give him all 10 overs,” said the coach.

Nepal will now take on Uganda in their second match on Friday. Uganda lost to the United States of America by six wickets in the other match of the day. Ireland are the other team in the tournament. The top two teams are the round-robin league will make it to the final that will decided the only spot available for World Cup.