KATHMANDU: Nepal displayed a much improved batting performance after captain Paras Khadka and Sagar Pun made a partnership of 118 runs for the fourth wicket to stabilise the wobbling batting and laid a solid foundation to post a score of 217-9 in the ICC World Cricket League Championships (WCLC) match against the hosts Netherlands at Amsteelveen on Monday. Khadka top-scored with 84 runs, while Pun played a handy innings of 45 runs. Nepal were put into bat by the hosts after they won the toss. In their first game on Saturday,  Nepal were ended with a paltry score of 97 runs in the first innings and were comprehensively beaten by seven wickets by the Netherlands. Nepal are currently on the fifth position in the table. They must beat Netherlands that are on the top of eight-country division to keep their hopes of qualifying into the next round of the WCLC alive. Meanwhile, Nepal's batting opening combination continued to fail today as well. Anil Mandal returned to the pavilion with meagre 4 runs off 33 deliveries seeing his middle stump clattered of the length ball. Vice-captain Gyanendra Malla, on the other hand, held the innings together from one end with 39 runs and was dismissed softly while trying to check his drive only to lobbed a simple catch to mid-on. Malla hammered a hook for a six and a crunching cover drive during his innings. Sharad Veswakar did not last long in the middle as he was out cheaply trying to play a wide delivery to give a simple catch on the cover region. Paras Khadka and Sagar Pun played sensibly to steer Nepal to a decent total against the table topping side Netherlands. Khadka perished while trying to accelerate the run rate only to give a simple catch at the long on boundary. Sagar Pun repeated his captain's mistake and soon followed him to the pavilion in a couple of overs later. At the end of 45th over, Nepal had posted 190 runs for the loss of four wickets. Nepal, however, were pegged back with a double blow in the 46th over as they lost Pun and Raju Rijal for golden duck. Micheal Rippon was the pick of the Dutch bowling with the figure of 6-0-35-4, while Ashan Malik took two Nepali wickets. READ ALSO:

• Nepal face defeat against Netherlands in ICC World Cricket League Championship