Kathmandu – Nepal faced a first defeat off the Mumbai tour from Payyade Sports Club by 6 wickets in the 8th practice match played on Saturday.
Nepal elected to bat first after winning the toss and put up a moderate total of 137 runs in loss of 9 wickets playing all 20 overs. Paresh Lohani and Anil Mandal shared a 36 runs first wicket partnership before Lohani went for a run out. Lohani scored 25 runs off 21 balls with five fours and Mandal scored 39 runs off 31 deliveries including three fours and 2 sixes.
Sharad Vesawkar joined Mandal to put up the partnership of 50 runs for second wicket. Vesawkar played 28 balls for 21 runs hitting a boundary. Prithu Baskota made 15 runs off 9 balls that included two big sixes. None of the other batsman reached the double digit mark.
Vishal Dabholkar remained a successful bowler for the home team as he picked up 4 wickets. Saurabh Netravalkar grabbed 2 wickets while Sanket Nayak took one.
In reply, Payyade Sports Club chased the target in just 17.2 overs losing 4 wickets. Swapnil Salvi(7) and Bravish Shetty(26) put up the first wicket partnership of 32 runs. Sheety quick fired with playing only 8 balls, 5 of them going for fours and one for six. Salvi hit a boundary.
Pankaj Jaishwal and Sujit Nayak had a 66 runs fourth wicket partnership to guide the home team to victory. Jaishwal remained unbeaten with 47 ball 60 runs including five fours and four sixes while Nayak remained not out at 28 ball 27 runs hitting two fours and a six.
Nepal National Team is currently in Mumbai for practice ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifiers to be held in UAE in Kuwait in March. Nepal is scheduled to take on Thane District Team on Sunday before leaving for home.
