Nepal defeated Netherlands by 5 wickets in the triangular series of the ICC World Cup League 2 held in Scotland on Wednesday.
Chasing the 226-run target set by Netherlands, Nepal reached it in 47.1 overs, losing 5 wickets. Aarif Sheikh topped the score with 78 runs including 7 fours and 2 sixes off 99 deliveries, followed by Dipendra Singh Airee with 38 runs while Kushal Bhurtel made 25 runs. Similarly, Captain Rohit Paudel and Aasif Sheikh contributed 23 and 19 runs, respectively. Bhim Sarki and Gulshan Jha scored 11 runs each to help Nepal secure a win over Netherlands.
This is Nepal's second consecutive win in the ongoing triangular series of the ICC World Cup League 2. Earlier in the first match on Monday, Nepal had defeated home team Scotland by 1 wicket.
On the bowling side, Michael Levitt took 2 wickets while Vivian Kingma and Paul van Meekeren grabbed 1 wicket each for Netherlands.
Earlier, electing to bat first after winning the toss at the Forthill Cricket Stadium in Dundee, Netherlands notched up 225 runs losing all wickets in 49.1 overs.
Noah Croes topped the score with 48 runs including 5 fours off 55 balls followed by captain Scott Edwards with 46 runs including 4 fours off 71 deliveries while Zach Lion-Cachet and Roelof van der Merwe contributed 27 and 21 runs, respectively. The other batsmen could not achieve significant runs.
To restrict the opponent to paltry 225 runs, Sompal Kami claimed the highest 3 wickets followed by Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane and Lalit Rajbanshi with 2 wickets each for Nepal.
This marks Nepal's second win over Netherlands, following a split result in their previous encounter in Kirtipur (February 2024), where Nepal won one match but lost the other.
Under the triangular series, Nepal will take on Scotland again on Sunday.
.
