Nepal had earlier lost to Afghanistan by three runs on Saturday and to India by 84 runs on Tuesday.A half-century by opener Subash Khakurel was the only noteworthy performance for the Nepali national team in the match against the mighty Pakistan U-23 team. [break]
Pakistan restricted Nepal to 156 runs after electing to field. The age-group team of the Test nation, studded with players with international experience like Ehsan Adil (one Test and two ODIs), Usman Salahuddin (two ODIs), Hammad Azam (eight ODIs and five T20Is) and Raza Hasan (seven T20Is), then reached 159/1 in just 33.1 overs.
Nepal lost opener Anil Mandal (five runs off 22 balls) in the second ball of the 10th over when the team´s total was 29 runs. Gyanendra Malla scored a run-a-ball 10 and Binod Bhandari garnered 16 runs off 40 balls in the middle order. Basanta Regmi remained not out on 16 runs off 43 balls to make sure Nepal batted out the full 50 overs.
However, it was Khakurel who single-handedly fought against the Pakistani bowling attack and guided Nepal to a respectable total. Khakurel scored 78 runs off 127 balls before Mohammad Nawaz claimed his wicket in the fifth ball of the 42nd over. He struck nine fours and a six.
Raza Hasan took three wickets for Pakistan while Usman Qadir claimed two. Bilawal Bhatti, Hammad Azam, Nawaz and Babar Azam took a wicket each.
Chasing the small target, Azam scored an unbeaten 100 runs off 118 balls to seal an easy victory for Pakistan with 101 balls to spare.
Man-of-the-match Azam hit 11 boundaries during his fine innings. Pakistan lost only opener Azeem Ghumman (15 runs off 35 balls) during the run-chase. Hammad Azam also remained unbeaten on 41 runs off 46 balls. Basanta Regmi took the only wicket for Nepal.The Nepali team will return to Kathmandu on Friday.
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