Nepal national cricket team has registered a four-wicket win over Kenya in the third match of the five-match T20I series. Nepal chased down 157 runs with three balls spare at Gymkhana Club Ground to go 2-1 up in the series.
Pawan Sarraf’s attacking inning (20 runs from 12 balls) helped Nepal add 35 runs for the opening wicket. Debutant Arjun Saud (35) and Gyanendra Malla then shared 42 runs for the second wicket with Arjun leaving the crease in the first ball of the 11th over.
Gyanendra Malla anchored the inning scoring 46 runs off 41 balls, for which he was adjudged as player of the match. Rohit Paudel and Aadil Aalam’s quick 29 and 16 runs respectively saw Nepal cruise through to the victory in 19.3 overs, losing six wickets.
Eugene Ochieng and Viraj Patel picked up a couple of wickets for Kenya, while Collins Obuya and Emmanuel Bundi grabbed one wicket each.
Earlier, Kenya piled up 156/2 in the allotted 20 overs despite a sluggish start. Kenya who were 29/2 after the powerplay was boosted by an unbeaten 137 runs partnership between Irfan Karim and Rakep Patel. Karim scored 55(47)* whereas Patel hammered 73(43)* smashing five boundaries and four biggies. The duo added 69 runs from the last five overs.
Sompal Kami and Aadil Ansari pocketed 1 each wicket for Nepal. After going wicketless, Sandeep Lamichhane’s record run of picking at least one wicket in a T20I match comes to an end after 26 matches.
The fourth T20I will be played on 29th August at Gymkhana Club Ground. Nepal won the first match by five wickets while Kenya were victorious by 18 runs in the second clash.