Kathmandu, Sept 25: Nepal has won in men’s cricket at the 20th Asian Games being held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. Nepal defeated Afghanistan by five wickets.
In the match held today at Korogi Sports Park in Nishin, Aichi, Japan, Afghanistan won the toss and batted first, setting a target of 103 runs for Nepal. Nepal chased down the victory target in 17.2 overs, losing five wickets.
Sandeep Jora contributed the most for Nepal with 34 runs. He hit three fours and a six off 35 balls. Similarly, Rohit Kumar Paudel scored an unbeaten 33, Dipendra Singh Airee added 15, and Kushal Malla scored nine runs.
Towards bowling, Faridun Dawoodzai, Abdullah Ahmadzai, and Arab Gul each took one wicket for Afghanistan.
Earlier, while batting, Afghanistan scored 102 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their allotted 20 overs. For Afghanistan, Faisal Khan Ahmadzai made 30 runs. Similarly, Najibullah Zadran scored 30 runs and Nangelia Khan contributed an unbeaten 17 runs.
In bowling, Nepal’s Kushal Bhurtel took four wickets and Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi took three wickets.
Nepal, which is in Group ‘A’, will play against Japan on Saturday. Afghanistan and Japan are in this group. Similarly, Group ‘B’ has Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Oman.
