Kathmandu, November 30:

Nischal Chaudhary scored an impressive half-century and Bhuqan Karki and Sameer Nepal shared eight wickets between them as Nepal thrashed Hong Kong by 154 runs to top the Group A at the ACC Under-15 Elite Cup cricket tournament here at the TU Stadium today.

With the win, Nepal topped Group A with four wins in as many matches, while Hong Kong finished runners up with three wins. Oman, Malaysia and Thailand were eliminated from the group.

Singapore completed the semi-final line-up on better run rate despite their 57-run defeat by Kuwait at the Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidyalaya in Bhaktapur. Singapore, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia all earned two points in Group B. Afghanistan won all four matches to top the group, while UAE were disqualified.

In Sunday’s semi-finals, Nepal will take on Singapore at the TU Stadium and Afghanistan will play against Hong Kong at Institute of Engineering grounds. The final will be held at TU Stadium on Tuesday.

Batting first after skipper Prithu Baskota won the toss at TU Stadium, Nepal accumulated 197 runs losing nine wickets in 40 overs and then packed Hong Kong for 43 runs in 19.3 overs. After losing three wickets for just 40 runs and Baskota retired hurt with muscle cramp on

14, Nepal looked diasy against Hong Kong. But the fourth-wicket stand of 81 runs between Nischal and Vivek Dali (28) took Nepal towards safety.

Chaudhary, who further shared a 32-run stand for fifth wicket with Pradeep Airee (14),hit six fours in his 73-ball 56. Baskota returned at the crease with a runner after the fall of seventh wicket and added 11 runs to his account.

In reply, Bhuwan Karki and Sameer Nepal took four wickets each after two run outs as Hong Kong bowed down in front of the home team. Nizakat Khan top-scored in the innings with 21 runs. Man of the match Karki took four wickets conceding just one run in his 4.3-over spell, while Nepal claimed 4-5 off five overs.

In the day’s other matches, the UAE thrashed Saudi Arabia by 215 runs at Lab School and Malaysia overwhelmed Thailand by 10 wickets at Institute of Engineering.