Nepal's Easy Win Over Malaysia in T20 World Cup 2024 Qualifiers

In their second match in the Asia Qualifier for the T20 World Cup 2024 to be held in the West Indies and USA, Nepal beat Malaysia by six wickets with twelve balls remaining.

Earlier, Malaysia won the toss and elected to bat first. They had a dream start with the opening partnership of 58 in just 5.5 overs. At this score, opening batsman Zubaidi Zulkifle was dismissed for 24 runs from 16 balls. But after this opening partnership, Malaysia's batting went into downfall as no incoming batsman could score any substantial runs. In fact, six of the Malaysian batsmen could not even get to the double-digit score. The top score for Malaysia was by the other opening batsmen Syed Aziz who scored a brilliant 68 runs from 49 balls which included eight fours and two sixes. In the end, Malaysia scored 165 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. 16 extras from Nepalese bowlers also contributed to the score. 

Other than Karan KC who went for 42 runs from his four overs with no wickets, all other bowlers did relatively well, with Abinash Bohara being the pick of the bowlers with four wickets and giving away just 27 runs. Sandeep Lamichhane, Gulshan Jha, and Captain Rohit Paudel picked one wicket each. There were two run-outs in the Malaysian innings.

In reply, Nepal started well. Openers Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh put on 49 runs for the first wicket. After the fall of Kushal Bhurtel who contributed 43 in that 49 runs, Kushal Malla and Aasif Sheikh carried on the innings. Aasif Sheikh had scored 32 runs from 23 balls, when he got out when Nepal's score was 116. Malla scored 65 runs from 32 balls and got out when Nepal was just nine runs away from the target. In the end, Nepal chased the target in 18 overs with the loss of four wickets.

Malaysia used seven bowlers in total but other than Muhammad Amir who took 3 wickets and gave away just 18 runs in his three overs, none were effective.

Kushal Malla was declared player of the match for his 65 runs. Nepal will play in their next game against Oman on Thursday.

In the other three games played today, UAE beat Kuwait by 5 wickets, Oman beat Singapore by 22 runs, and Baharain beat Hong Kong by 20 runs.