Nepal registered the thumping victory after successfully chasing the 121-run target in 26.4 overs. The newly discovered sensational Nepali opening pair of Mahesh Chhetri and Anil Mandal once again gave a solid start. [break]
During the 80-run first wicket partnership, Mandal contributed 33 runs off 51 balls. Chhetri topscored with 63 runs off 83 balls. During the anchoring innings, Chhetri struck eight boundaries. This is the fourth one-day half-century of Chhetri for the national squad while it was Chhetri´s second consecutive half-century in the tournament.
Shakti Gauchan (13 runs) and Gyanendra Malla (3 runs) were both unbeaten when Nepal sealed the eight-wicket victory. Malla, who initially did not get visa from Kuwait, played his first match in the tournament after Kuwait provided him visa last Sunday. Gyanendra replaced all-rounder Basanta Regmi in the playing set.
Earlier, Nepal elected to field and rattled the hosts as Nepali bowlers took wickets one after another. Binod Das and Mehboob Aalam shared five wickets to show the pavilion-way to the Kuwaiti top order.
Das, who didn´t play the last two group matches, came in the playing set replacing another pacer Amrit Bhattarai and claimed three wickets while Alam took two wickets. Das bowled nine overs with a maiden and conceded 24 runs to celebrate the three-wicket success.
Sanjam Regmi demolished the Kuwaiti lower order taking four wickets to wrap up Kuwait for 120 at the completion of 42 overs. Regmi bowled nine overs with a maiden and conceding 26 runs to claim four wickets. Nepali skipper Paras Khadka took a wicket during the innings. Khadka also had terrific bowling figures of 8-2-9-1.
Nepal will take on Malaysia, who thrashed the UAE by two wickets and maintained their net run rate to qualify, in the semifinals on Wednesday. The UAE, four-time winners and five-time finalists in all eight editions of the tournament, could not reach the semifinals after Tuesday´s loss.
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