KATHMANDU: Nischal Pandey and Sushan Bhari Shrestha steered Nepal to a comprehensive six-wicket win over Hong Kong on the inaugural day of the ACC U-16 Elite Cup here at the Tribhuvan University Stadium today.

Electing to bat first, Hong Kong were bowled out for 88 runs in 35.4 overs thanks to the left-arm spinners Nischal and Sushan, who shared seven wickets between them for the hosts. The home team surpassed the total losing four wickets in 18.3 overs.

Hong Kong were cruising along nicely at 84-4 by the 30th over before losing their remaining six wickets for just four runs. Nischal and Sushan accounted for the last five wickets while No 10 batsman Ajaz Khan was run out to end the Hong Kong innings. Skipper Miten Rajesh Khatri top scored for Hong Kong with 27 runs and opener Anshuman Singh chipped in 18.

Man-of-the-match Nishcal returned with the figures of 4-6 in 6.4 overs while Sushan took 3-22 in eight overs. Hari Chaulagain and Bibek Chaudhary also claimed one scalps each for the hosts.

Nepal had a poor start chasing the 89-run target when they lost opener Nishcal (four) at 9-1 in the second over. But the second wicket 31-run stand between Sharad Khadka (14) and Dipendra consolidated the Nepali innings. Nepal lost three more wickets of Sharad, skipper Switchan Shah (four) and Sanam Shrestha (nine) but Dipendra hung on to steer his team home with an unbeaten knock of 38 runs. Dipendra struck five fours in his 47-ball innings. Kinchit Shah was the pick of the Hong Kong bowlers with 3-26 while Simon Deep Singh also grabbed one wicket.

"It's always good to start a tournament with victory but we need to improve a lot in the next matches," said Nepal's Sri Lankan coach Roy Luke Dias. Dias praised Dipendra's performance but said there was still room to impove on batting and fielding." Nepal skipper Switchan, meanwhile, was happy with his team's overall performance. "We bowled well and batted well. We would like to keep the momentum going in the next match as well," added Nishcal.

Hong Kong coach Sher Bahadur Lama credited the home team for their better performance. "We could not put a decent total on the board and lost the match," said the Hong Kong coach adding that Nepal was the better side.

Meanwhile, Bahrain beat Kuwait by seven wickets and Singapore defeated Malaysia by 53 runs in the other matches of the day. At the Pulchowk Engineering grounds, Kuwait were bowled out for 111 runs in 20.4 overs and Bahrain overcame the total losing three wickets in 21 overs. Man-of-the-match Lalith Lal and Aditya Sarkar claimed three wickets each and Mohammed Sameer Fayyaz took two for Bahrain. Mohammed Sameer scored unbeaten 35 and Aditya Balamurali Krishna remained unbeaten on 33 to guide Bahrain home. Avhinash Mohan of Kuwait took all three Bahrain wickets to fall.

At the Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidhyalaya grounds, Singapore scored a mammoth 194-9 in 40 overs and restricted Malaysia for 141 runs in 35.2 overs. Singapore's total was bulid after top order batsmen Iishan Shekhar (51) and Vikas Raghavan Rajgopal (56) scored half centuries. Iishan struck six fours in his 60-ball innings while Vikas hit three fours and two sixes in his 58-ball knock. Muhammad Fetri Mohmmad Sham, Md Syahadat Ramli and Nik Nabil Safwan Anvay took two wickets apiece for Malaysia.

In reply, Md Amerul Asharaf Hussian top scored with 30 runs as the Malaysian innings folded in the 36th over.

Man-of-the-match Shivam Ahuja, who earlier chipped in 22 runs, returned to take 4-32 and Abhiraj Deep Sing claimed 3-24 for Singapore.

HONG KONG

Anshuman st Sanam b Bibek 18

Akhil lbw b Hari 4

Kinchit st Sanam b Sushan 8

Miten lbw b Nischal 27

Amandeep c Devendra b Nishcal 8

Simondeep st Sanam b Sushan 7

Toby b Nischal 0

Daljeet c Nischal b Sushan 1

Forqan lbw b Nischal 2

Ajaz run out 0

Bilal not out 0

Extras: 13 (b1, lb2, w10)

Total: 88 (35.4 Overs)

FoW: 1-12, 2-38, 3-41, 4-56, 5-84, 6-84, 7-86, 8-87, 9-88

Nepal bowling: Hari 5-2-11-1,

Devendra 6-1-18-0, Sharad 1-0-4-0,

Bibek 6-1-7-1, Sushan 8-3-22-3,

Nischal 6.4-3-6-4, Rajiv 3-1-17

NEPAL

Sharad c Daljeet b Kinchit 14

Nischal c Ansuman b Simondeep 4

Dipendra not out 38

Switchan c Amandeep b Kinchit 4

Sanam c & b Kinchit 9

Sushan not out 3

Extras: 17 (b1, lb1, w12, nb3)

FoW: 1-9, 2-40, 3-48, 4-67

Hong Kong bowling: Toby 3-0-22-0,

Simondeep 2-0-14-1, Kinchit 7-1-26-3,

Amandeep 1-0-5-0, Miten 5-1-19-0,

Akhil 0.3-0-1-0