Kuala Lumpur, November 25:

Raj Kumar Pradhan grabbed five wickets as Malaysia were skittled out for 162 runs in reply to the visitors total of 226 in the first innings on the second day of the ACC Premier League match here at the Kinrara Oval on Saturday.

At the close, Nepal reached 37-1 in second innings for a lead of 101 runs. Except for a brave stand of 46 runs from Esrafiz Abdul Aziz and Suhan Kumar’s 40, nothing really went right for the Malaysians who gave away six easy catches in the first innings.

Nepal had in fact provided the hosts a taste of their own medicine under sunny skies with leg-spinner Pradhan, who slammed an unbeaten 68 on Friday, setting the motion in place after an early breakthrough.

Taking off from an overnight total of four runs, Rakesh Madhavan could only add eight more to his score, bowled by Paras Khadka as Malaysia toiled at 1-29 before Shakti Gauchan picked up the vital wicket of Dinesh Muthuraman off a half-hearted lofted shot into the hands of Raj Kumar at deep covers and Shakti Gauchan stamped his mark by removing opener Suhan Kumar, caught by Mehboob Alam off a hasty shot to leave Malaysia in trouble at 58-3.

Pradhan consolidated Nepal’s fortunes as he wrecked havoc by taking five wickets in a spell of 18 overs to leave Malaysia stunned at 159-9. Even captain Rohan Vishnu Suppiah, coming on at No 9 to provide the much needed support to Esrafiz, failed to lift the sagging spirit of the home team when he ran himself out for gambling on a single run.

Nepal — 1st Innings: 226

Malaysia — 1st Innings (overnight: 4-0)

R Madhavan b Paras 12

S Kumar c Pradhan b Sharad 40

D Muthuraman c Alam b Shakti 5

R Selvaratnam c Lohani b Pradhan 14

T Kodikara c Lohani b Pradhan 7

S Navaratnam st Mahesh b Pradhan 11

M Krishnamurthi c Das b Pradhan 8

EA Aziz lbw b Das 46

S Retinam c Mahesh b Pradhan 0

RV Suppiah run out 9

A Arudin not out 1

Extras: 9

Total: 162

FoW: 1-29, 2-48, 3-66, 4-82, 5-96, 6-104, 7-114, 8-114, 9-159

Nepal bowling: RK Pradhan 25-8-46-5, B Regmi 14-10-14-0, B Das 13.1-3-31-1, M Alam 7-0-14-0, P Khadka 9-3-15-1, S Regmi 7-0-14-0, S Gauchan 5-2-13-1, S Vesawkar 3-1-6-1

Nepal — 2nd Innings

P Lohani not out 9

S Vesawkar st Retinam b K’murthi 23

S Gauchan not out 0

Extras: 5

Total: 37/1

FoW: 1-36

Malaysia bowling: T Kodikara 6-2-12-0, S Navaratnam 3-0-16-0, M Krishnamurthi 2-0-4-1