In the third and decisive match, Nepal defeated the visiting team UAE by 6 wickets and won the three-match one-day international series 2-1. The first match of the series was won by the UAE by 84 runs and in the second match, Nepal registered a victory by 3 wickets.
This is Nepal’s second ODI series win against the UAE. Earlier, Nepal had registered a 2-1 series victory in UAE soil in 2019. Overall, this is Nepal’s fourth ODI series win. Earlier, Nepal defeated Papua New Guinea twice and UAE once in the series.
Nepal met the target of 177 runs given by the UAE at the TU International Ground in 40.1 overs for 4 wickets.
Openers Aasif Shaikh and Gyanendra Malla contributed immensely to the victory. Asif scored an unbeaten 88 in which he hit 12 fours off 119 balls. Gyanendra scored 64 runs off 73 balls with the help of 7 fours and 3 sixes.
Chasing the target, Arjun Saud and Aasif Shaikh shared a partnership of 24 runs. In the tenth over, Saud scored 9 runs and was caught behind the wicket by Hazrat Bilal. Asif and Gyanendra Malla shared a century for the second wicket.
After a partnership of 122 runs, Gyanendra scored an lbw to Aayan Afzal Khan in the thirty-fourth over. This partnership is the highest partnership for the second wicket in Nepal’s One Day International cricket and the second-largest partnership for all wickets. The partnership of 129 runs for the third wicket against Papua New Guinea between Dev Khanal and Dipendra Aire in March this year is the highest partnership.
After Malla’s wicket, Rohit Paudel and Dipendra Aire were run out. Aasif remained undefeated and led the team to victory.
UAE bowlers Hazrat Bilal and Aayan Afzal Khan took 1 wicket each.
After winning the toss and choosing to field, UAE batted the entire 50 overs and scored 175 runs with the loss of 9 wickets.
Batting at number eight for the UAE, Aayan Afzal Khan scored an unbeaten 54 in which he hit 7 fours and 1 six off 63 balls. Hazrat Bilal scored an unbeaten 20 runs. Before this, Alishan Sharafu scored 33 runs and Rohan Mustafa scored 24 runs.
Nepal, who had a great start, scored only 16 runs and took 3 wickets from the UAE. Gulsan Jha caught Muhammad Waseem and skipper Chundangapoyil Rizwan behind the wicket. Sompal bowled Vritya Aravind.
Rohan Mustafa and Alishan Sharafu shared 63 runs for the third wicket. Mustafa was caught out by Dipendra Airee in the twenty-fourth over. In the twenty-sixth over, Kushal Bhurtel bowled Sharafu and Nepal dominated the game again. After that, UAE lost consecutive wickets. Dipendra Aire took the wicket of Vishnu Sukumaran in the 39th over. In the next over, Basil Hamid was caught behind the wicket of Lalit Rajbanshi. In the thirty-first over, Bhurtel took the wicket of Ahmad Raza and Zahoor Khan was run out in the next over.
After losing 9 wickets for 93 runs, Aayan Afzal Khan and Hazrat Bilal put on an excellent partnership for the tenth wicket and disappointed the Nepalese bowlers. Both shared an unbeaten 83-run stand for the tenth wicket. This partnership is the fourth-highest partnership for the tenth wicket in the history of ODI cricket. The record for the highest partnership for the tenth wicket is held by West Indies’ Viv Richards and Michael Holding, who shared an unbeaten 106 against England in 1984.
In the bowling of Nepal, Gulsan Jha, Dipendra Airee and Kushal Bhurtel took 2/2 wickets and Sompal Kami and Lalit Rajbanshi took 1/1 wicket.
