Nepal clinch ACC Eastern Region Cricket Championship-2019

Kathmandu–Nepal has clinched the ACC Eastern Region Cricket Championship-2019, defeating Hong Kong by six wickets in the final match held at Kinrara cricket ground in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia today.

his is Nepal's second straight win in this championship. Before this, Nepal had lifted the title defeating Hong Kong in the final match held in Malaysia by five wickets in 2017. With this victory, Nepal has also entered the U-19 Asia Cup taking place in Sri Lanka from August 28.

India, Pakistan, hosts Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait are playing the tournament. In today's finals, Hong Kong, which were sent to bat first after losing the toss, posted a victory target of 96 runs before Nepal. In reply, Nepal attained the target in 16.1 overs losing four wickets.

Pawan Sarraff contributed the highest number of runs to Nepal's victory. He made 39 runs. Similarly, Rit Gautam hit 13 runs, skipper Rohit Kumar Poudel made 12 runs and Khadka Bahadur Bohara made eight runs.

Towards bowling, Hong Kong's Raunak Kapoor took two wickets while Mohammad Hasan and Mohamad Hasan Khan each took one wicket.

Hong Kong which batted first was limited to mere 95 runs, losing all its wickets in 43.1 overs. It started off badly losing two wickets without making a single run. Adit Gorwara hit 24 runs, Kalhan Challul 19 runs and Raunak Kapoor 12 runs.

The rest eight Hong Kong wickets could not make double digit runs. Nepal's Sagar Dhakal hit a lethal bowling in course of limiting Hong Kong to low number of runs.

Dhakal, who bowled until 10 overs, took five wickets conceding 18 runs with five maiden. Similarly, Kaml Singh Airee took three wickets while Kushal Malla and Tilak Rajbhandari took one wicket each.

Nepal had defeated Malaysia by seven wickets in the semi final match to advance to the finals of the tournament before this. Hong Kong reached final defeating Singapore by 51 runs based on DL system.