Kathmandu, August 14 :

Gyanendra Malla and Sarad Vesawkar hammered half century each to guide Nepal to a comfortable six-wicket win over Kuwait in the ACC Trophy at Kelab Alam in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Set a moderate target of 204 runs off 50 overs, Nepal scored 208 runs losing four wickets with 15 balls to spare. Openers Paresh Lohani and Gyanendra Malla laid the platform for the Nepali team putting on 79-run stand for the first wicket. The partnership was broken when wicketkeeper Jagath Roshanta stumped Lohani off Habibullah.

Paresh Lohani scored 36 off 52 balls. Malla, who made his debut in the limited-over version of the game through the tournament, put on another 87-run partnership with Sarad Vesawkar for the second wicket. Malla scored 79 off 108 deliveries and earned the man of the match award. And by the time Vesawkar was run out on 62 runs, Nepal was already in the winning position.

Shakti Gauchan was unbeaten on 14 and Paras Khadka remained not out on eight runs. Hisham Mirza, Habibullah and Azmatullah took one wicket each for Kuwait.

Earlier, put into bat first by Nepali skipper Binod Das, Kuwait scored 204-7 in 50 overs. Nepali skipper Das struck early dismissing opener Nadeem Malik (7) with 15 runs on the board but Mohammed Nawaz (29) and Jagath Roshanta (36) fought hard adding 55 runs for the second wicket. Saud Qamar scored 44 off 70 balls. Hisham Mirza (27), Shamshad Ahmed (19) and Mustansar Hassan (14) contributed valuable runs to Kuwaiti total. Skipper Das was the most successful of the Nepali bowlers, taking 3-39 off eight overs, while Dhirendra Chand, Shakti Gauchan, Raj Kumar Pradhan and Basanta Regmi took one wicket each.

Nepal will take on Bhutan in its second league match on Wednesday in Group ‘C’ before taking on Hong Kong three days later and Myanmar on August 20.