KATHMANDU, APRIL 2
Dipendra Singh Airee scored a scintillating century as Nepal thrashed Malaysia by 85 runs in the Tri-Nation's T20I Series here at the TU Stadium today.
Batting first, Nepal posted 235-5 in their allotted 20 overs before packing Malaysia for 138 runs with one ball remaining. With their fourth straight victory, Nepal - who had already entered the final - finished at the top of the table with eight points. Papua New Guinea and Malaysia earned two points each and PNG made it to the final, thanks to better net run rate.
Nepal and PNG will fight for the title on Monday.
Invited to take the first strike, Nepal lost openers Kushal Bhurtel (12) and Aasif Sheikh (18) with 36 runs on the board. Airee was involved in four crucial partnerships on his way to scoring an unbeaten century. He and Rohit Paudel consolidated the innings with a 96-run stand for the third wicket in 10.2 overs, before Airee and Aarif Sheikh shared a 32-run partnership for the fourth wicket. The former vice-captain combined with Mohammad Aadil Alam to add 59 runs for the fifth wicket in the last four overs.
Airee remained unbeaten on 110 off just 57 balls and his innings was laced with 10 boundaries and six fours.
With his career-best score, Airee became the fourth Nepali batter to reach three-figures in T20Is and also surpassed the previous best of 107 scored by former skipper Gyanendra Malla against Bhutan in the 13th South Asian Games in 2019. Former skipper Paras Khadka (106) and Kushal Bhurtel (104) are the other batsmen to score T20I centuries for Nepal.
Paudel struck five boundaries in his 34-ball 51, while Alam scored nine-ball 14 with the help of a six. Muhammad Wafiq, Pavandeep Singh, Syazrul Idrus and Muhammad Amir took one wicket each for Malaysia.
In reply, opener Virandeep Singh top scored for Malaysia with 26-ball 47, while skipper Ahmad Faiz struck three fours in his 31-ball 33.
Ainool Hafizs (18) and Syed Aziz (17) also contributed in double figures.
Skipper Sandeep Lamichhane took 3-19, while Kamal Singh Airee (2-20) and player-of-the-match Dipendra Singh Airee (2-24) shared four wickets between them.
Kushal Bhurtel and Rohit Paudel grabbed one wicket each.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 3, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
