Kathmandu, October 3
India comfortably beat Nepal in the quarter-final of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Tuesday.
Winning by 23 runs, India have knocked Nepal out of the Asian Games to reach the semi-final.
Batting first India got off to a great start as Yashasvi Jaiswal took on Nepali bowlers as he smashed them all over the park. Jaiswal and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad put on an impressive 103 in 9.5 overs.
The Nepali bowlers had no answer for Jaiswal who continued to pile on the pressure and scored 100 in just 49 balls. Even though Nepal did take wickets to reduce India to 150 for four, a late burst from Rinku Singh and Shivan Dube took India to an impressive total of 202 in the allotted 20 overs.
Sompal Kami was good with the ball and was unlucky to not pick up more than one wicket. The pick of the bowler, however, was Dipendra Singh Airee who cramped the Indian batters and picked up two wickets giving away only 31 runs. Sandeep Lamichhane picked up the other wicket.
In reply, Nepal were under pressure from the start. Chasing 203, they lost opener Aasif Sheikh early. Even though Nepal did not lose wickets, Nepal did not get going as the Indian spinners got the best of Kushal Bhurtel, Kushal Malla and Rohit Paudel.
Despite some power-hitting by Airee and Sundeep Jora, Nepal fell short of the target by 23 runs as they were knocked out by India in the Asian Games.
