Kathmandu, June 4 :

Nepal was in a commanding position on the opening day of their semi-final match against Bahrain in the ACC U-15 Cup (Elite Group) at Kelab Alam Stadium on Sunday.

Riding on an unbeaten 50 runs from Pradeep Airee and 48 runs from Sagar Pun, Nepal scored a huge total of 169-9 in the allotted 60 overs in the first innings.

Suvendu Pandey, who scored half century against Singapore in the last match, contributed 14 for Nepal.

Nepal then reduced Bahrain to 65-6 at close. Krishna Karki and Rochak Bhatta took two wickets each and Pradeep Airee also did his trick with the ball taking a wicket.

Salman Seikh completed a five-wicket haul for Bahrain while David Mathias and Divyesh Nambiar took two wickets each. David Mathias top- scored with 26 runs for Bahrain. Divyesh Nambier and Karan Singh contributed 10 runs each.

Nepal earned four points so far — three points from bowling and one from batting. Bahrain also got the same number of points through bowling. In the other semi-final, the UAE scored 132-9 in their allotted 60 overs. In reply, Malaysia were struggling at 92-7 at close.