A historic maiden century from Skipper Paras Khadka helped Nepal to win their first-ever ODI series.
Paras Khadka played a captain’s inning scoring 115 from 109 balls with 15 boundaries and a six as Nepal beat UAE by four-wickets in the third and last ODI match of the series. Thus, completing a 2-1 series win, their first-ever since they earned the ODI status in March last year.
UAE scored 254 for the loss of six-wicket after Nepal invited them to bat first. Shaiman Anwar top scored with 87 runs (70 balls, 9 fours, 2 sixes) followed by a half-century from Mohammad Boota (59) and CP Rizwan (45 runs).
Paras Khadka and Karan KC shared two-wickets each whilst Sompal Kami and Sandeep Lamichhane had one each to their tally.
During the chase, opener Binod Bhandari failed cheaply for 9(17). Paras Khadka and Gyanendra Malla then steadied the ship with a half-century partnership for the second-wicket. Malla got dismissed for 31 runs after hitting four boundaries in 34 balls.
The middle order batsmen Dipendra Singh Airee poor form continued in this series, he managed 9 runs, Sandeep Jora, the debutant, contributed valuable run-a-ball 19 runs. Likewise, Youngster Rohit Kumar Paudel cheaped in with 16 runs.
The middle-order had less contributed but it was helping Nepal to move on and the Skipper managed to hit his maiden century. The 96-balls century was the first-ever by a Nepalese cricketer in ODI history. Paras was trapped in front for 115 runs. That dismissal brought Sompal Kami and Aarif Sheikh who then took the match away from the host and finished it in style with a Six in 45 overs.
Kami and Sheikh remained unbeaten on 26 and 21 respectively. Nepal and UAE will now play the three-match twenty20 series starting from January 30.
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