KATHMANDU, Feb 28: Nepal defeated Papua New Guinea by 4 wickets in the ICC World Cup League-2 triangular one-day international series match in Dubai on Monday. With this win, Nepal has kept its hope for a top three finish alive. It was the five consecutive win of Nepal in CWC League-2, a two-and-half-year competition involving seven teams that are two steps away from the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.
The last four matches were held at Nepal’s home turf on TU Cricket Ground from February 14 to 21. Nepal made a clean sweep in the home series against Scotland and Namibia with the help of Sandeep Lamichhane, who is currently facing rape charge and was unable to fly to the UAE.
During Monday’s match held at Dubai International Cricket Ground in the UAE, Nepal met the target of 204 runs posted by Papua New Guinea at the loss of 6 wickets in 45.2 overs.
Kushal Bhurtel contributed 56 runs for Nepal while Ashif Sheikh made 44 runs, Arif Sheikh 33 runs, captain Rohit Kumar Poudel 20, Dipendra Singh Airi 22 and Kushal Malla 12.
Invited to bat first after losing the toss, Papua New Guinea made 203 runs at the loss of 9 wickets in 50 overs.
Gulsan Jha took three wickets for Nepal while Kushal Malla took two wickets and Sompal Kami, Karan KC and Pratish GC took one wicket each.
With the victory, Nepal is in sixth position in the points table with 28 points from 29 matches. Scotland is already declared the winners of the league.
The top three teams in the standings qualify for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2022.
The bottom four teams will drop into the Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-Off 2022 - which is a repechage event to the Global Qualifier- and will be joined by the winner of Challenge League A and B. The top two teams from the play-off will keep their hopes alive of participating in India 2023.
The Men’s CWC League 2 - which sits one tier under the Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League - will see 21 tri-series played. Participating teams Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, United Arab Emirates and United States of America will play 36 One Day Internationals each on the Road to India 2023.
Nepal will play the last four matches of the series on home soil after the UAE tour.
