West Indies defeats Nepal by 101 runs

Nepal lost to the West Indies by 101 runs in the match held today under the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup Qualifiers, 2023.

In the match held at the Harare Sports Club ground in Zimbabwe, Nepal was all out in 49.4 overs with 238 runs on the board, in the effort to meet the mammoth total of 339 runs scored by the opponent.

Aarif Sheikh top scored for Nepal with 63 runs in 93 balls followed by Gulshan Jha who scored 42. Captain Rohit Paudel chipped in with 30 runs while Aasif Sheikh and Karan KC both scored 28 runs each. Nepal had a poor start with Kushal Bhurtel and Bhim Sarki returning to the pavilion quickly after scoring 5 and 2 runs respectively.

For the West Indies, Jason Holder took 3 wickets while Alzarri Joseph, Keemo Paul, Akeal Hosein took 2 wickets each.Earlier, put into bat first after losing the toss, West Indies scored 339 runs at the loss of 7 wickets in the stipulated 50 overs. West Indies captain Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran scored centuries to lift their team to a mammoth total.  Hope scored 132 runs while Pooran scored 115 runs in the double century partnership of 216 runs. Hope also won the player of the match award.

Nepal’s Lalit Rajbanshi took 3 wickets, while Karan KC, Gulshan Jha, Sandeep Lamichhane and Dipendra Singh Airi took one wicket each.

With the loss today, Nepal has slipped to the fourth position among the five countries in Group A. Only the USA is behind Nepal. Nepal will now play against the Netherlands for the final group match, before the Super Six involving the top three from each table. Host Zimbabwe is also in Group A.

Nepal lost to Zimbabwe by 8 wickets in the first match but defeated USA in the second by 6 wickets. In the last group match, Nepal will play against the Netherlands on June 24.

Group B comprises Sri Lanka, Oman, Scotland, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates.