After defeating Saudi Arabia by 301 runs, Nepal entered the semi-finals of the ACC Men’s U-19 Premier Cup.
Nepal defeated Saudi Arabia by a wide margin in the match held in Malaysia on Thursday. With this win, Nepal has entered the semi-finals by being at the top of Group ‘A’.
Full Scorecard, Nepal U19 vs Saudi Arabia U19 , ACC U19 Premier Cup 2023
Chasing the target of 348 runs given by Nepal, Saudi Arabia was reduced to 46 runs in 19.1 overs. Varun Saravanan scored 11 runs for Saudi Arabia. Other players could not even score double figures.
Left Arm Spinner Dipesh Kandel took 6 wickets for Nepal. Similarly, Akash Chand took two wickets and Subhas Bhandari took one wicket.
Earlier, while batting, Nepal scored 347 runs for the loss of eight wickets. Arjun Kumal scored 142 runs off 111 balls for Nepal. He hit 17 fours and two sixes.
Similarly, Aakash Tripathi scored 89 runs, opner Deepak Bohara scored 29 runs, Bishal Bikram KC scored 24 runs, Deepak Prasad Dumre and Deepak Kandel scored 14 runs each.
Mohammad Ahmed Raja, Mohammad Ghayour Ahmad and Abdullah Siraz took two wickets each and Zuhair Muhammad and Mujeebur Rahman took one wicket each for Saudi Arabia.
Full Scorecard, Nepal U19 vs Saudi Arabia U19 , ACC U19 Premier Cup 2023
Nepal has won three matches in the group stage. Earlier, they defeated Bahrain and Iran in the group stage.
Arjun Kumal’s record
This is the personal highest score by a Nepalese batsman in any format of international cricket. This is Arjun’s second century in U-19 international cricket. In February, he scored 108 runs against Kuwait in the Asia region of the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifiers.
Kanishk Chaungai’s 125 runs against Maldives in Karachi, Pakistan in 2003 and Dev Khanal’s against Kuwait in February in ICC U19 World Cup Qualifiers in UAE are the highest scores of Nepalese players in U-19 internationals. Arjun has broken both the Nepali records.
Rohit Paudel’s 126 runs in March 2022 against Papua New Guinea was the previous highest score by a Nepali player in any format. Arjun also surpassed Rohit’s score at the YSD UKM Oval in Bangi. After Dev Khanal, Arjun also equaled the record of scoring two centuries in U19 internationals.