Nepal hold their nerves to beat Namibia by 3 runs

Kathmandu, March 1

Nepal have broken the poor home form by beating Namibia by three runs during the Tri-National T20 series at the TU Cricket Ground on Friday.

Being asked to bat, Nepal did not have the best start losing Aasif Sheikh and Rohit Paudel early. Wickets continued to fall as Nepal were reduced to 64 for 4 but a superb partnership between Aarif Sheikh and Kushal Malla gave the hosts a solid base to finish the game strong thanks to their 85-run partnership.

Nepal looked like scoring 200 but a flurry of wickets restricted Nepal to 180 in their allotted 20 overs.

Chasing 181, Namibia did not get off to the best of starts, losing Malan Kruger and Michael van Lingen early. However, Jan Frylinck, JJ Smith, and Jean-Pierre Kotze then controlled the innings for Namibia and were looking to give Nepal another loss. However, a superb over from Dipendra Singh Airee turned the game on its head as he picked up two wickets, giving away only two runs.

Abinash Bohora also picked up the crucial wicket of Frylinck, which gave Nepal the momentum heading into the final overs.

With 11 runs to defend, Karan KC held his nerve to give Nepal their first win in four T20Is.