KATHMANDU, Oct 15: The national cricket team, which is on its tour of Sri Lanka for the preparation of ICC World Cricket League Division 3, lost its first match against Sri Lanka Port Authority by 74 runs at the Colombo Colts Cricket Ground on Wednesday.
Division 3 is scheduled for October 23-30 in Malaysia.
Nepal could not fare well against the host´s effective bowling as Madushanka Ekanayaka claimed four and Cjalaka Priyanath took three wickets to help Sri Lanka bowl out Nepal in just 24.6 overs. Skipper Gyanendra Malla scored the highest 24 runs for Nepal.
Regular skipper Paras Khadka and medium pace bowler Sompla Kami was given rest by Nepali coach Pubudu Dassanayake.
Winning the toss and inviting Sri Lanka to bat first, Nepal made a good start by taking the wicket of opener Prashan Wickramasinghe in 6.1 over. Another opener Gayashan Weerasekara scored the highest runs for Sri Lanka with 40 off 45 balls before being caught and bowled by Amrit Bhattarai, who picked up the wickets of opening pair.
Madushanka Ekanayake contributed 35 runs off 43 balls before Basant Regmi, who took the highest number of wickets for Nepal — altogether four, made him caught through Sagar Pun. Basant gave away 35 runs.
Yohan De Silva scored 18 runs while Gayan Maneeshan struck 17 runs as Sri Lanka put up 154 runs target against Nepal playing 42.6 overs and losing all wickets in its allotted 50 overs. Bhuban Karki also bagged two wickets for Nepal.
In reply, Nepal made a disastrous start losing its opening pair Subash Khakurel and Naresh Budhayer at one and two runs respectively.
Gyanendra (24 runs off 46 balls) Basant (12 runs off 16 balls) and Sagar Pun (11 runs off 18 balls) were the only Nepali batsmen to score in double digit.
Ranesh Perera bowled Gyandendra in 5.4 over while Anuk De Alwis got Sagar caught through Gayan Maneeshan. Basant was bowled by Ranesh Perera in 21.4 overs.
Mehboob Alam scored eight runs as Nepal lost all of its wickets in 24.6 overs.
Anuk De Alwis bagged two wickets for Sri Lanka.
Nepal will play two other practice matches in Sri Lanka.
Source : My Republica
