Opener Sunil Dhamala hit a timely century as Nepal wrapped up their Dharamshala tour with a crushing eight-wicket defeat of Himanchal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) XI on Friday. 

It was Nepal’s second victory in the tour out of three matches and will now head for New Delhi to play two friendly matches against Afghanistan on January 11 and 13. Nepali squad is fine tuning their preparations in India for the upcoming ICC U-19 World Cup slated for January 22 to February 14 in Bangladesh. 

In the match reduced to 30-over-a-side, Nepal restricted HPCA to 167-7 before Dhamala struck an unbeaten century guiding the team to 171-2 in 28.4 overs. Dhamala’s undefeated 86-ball knock included eight boundaries and five sixes. 

Nepal lost another opener Ishan Pandey (duck) in the second ball of the innings before Dhamala took away the game with two big partnerships. He first shared 85 

runs for the second wicket with Yogendra Karki before skipper Raju Rijal supported him with an unbeaten 86-run partnership. Karki made 35 off 48 with five boundaries and Rijal scored 26 off 38 with two fours. 

Earlier, HPCA had a modest start with Nitin Sharma (18) and Digbijay Singh adding 40 runs for the first wicket. Dhamala provided the breakthrough removing Sharma. Singh departed soon for 39 off 37 after hitting four boundaries and two sixes. Mudit Shukla, Apoorva Walia (18) and Arjun Sharma (13) helped HPCA put on a challenging total. 

Shukla remained unbeaten on 45 off 48 hitting seven boundaries. Sushil Kandel (2-11) and Prem Tamang (2-17) shared four wickets between them for Nepal. Dipendra Airee and Sandeep Lamichhane also had one scalp apiece.

After playing two friendlies against Afghanistan, the youth squad will head back to Nepal on January 16 before embarking on their journey to Bangladesh for the World Cup. Nepal are drawn against Test giants India and New Zealand along with Ireland in Group ‘D’. Ireland have replaced Australia in the pool after the latter decided to withdraw from the tournament citing security reasons.