Kathmandu, January 8

Sunil Dhamala scored a fine century as Nepal U-19 cricket team defeated HPCA XI by eight wickets in their practice match at the Dharamshala Cricket Stadium in Himachal Pradesh on Friday.

Batting first, the HPCA scored 167-8 in 30 overs before Nepal U-19 raced to 171-2 in 28.4 overs. Dhamala struck eight fours and five sixes in his unbeaten 100 off just 86 balls. After the fall of opener Ishan Pandey for a duck in the second ball of the innings, Dhamala and Yogendra Singh Karki (35) added 85 runs for the second wicket. Dhamala then shared an unbroken 96-run partnership for the third wicket with skipper Raju Rijal, who was not out 26 off 38 balls.

Earlier, Mudit Shukla top scored for HPCA with 48-ball 45. Sushil Kandel and Prem Tamang took two wickets each for Nepal U-19, while Dhamala, Sandeep Lamichhane and Dipendra Singh Airee pocketed one apiece. The Nepali team is in India to prepare for the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup to be held in Bangladesh later this month. They will play two friendly matches against Afghanistan U-19 team on January 11 and 13 in India. Nepal are in Group D along with India, Ireland and New Zealand in the junior World Cup.