Nepal produced a dominant performance to defeat China by 221 runs in the opening Group A match of the Asian Games Men\u2019s Cricket Qualifier in Singapore on Sunday, powered by a record-breaking batting display led by Kushal Bhurtel.<\/p>\n
China won the toss and elected to field first, a decision that quickly backfired as Nepal\u2019s top order launched into an aggressive assault from the outset.<\/p>\n
Bhurtel smashed 129 off 43 balls, including 16 sixes, setting the tone for Nepal\u2019s mammoth 313 for 2 in 20 overs. He shared a 175-run partnership with Kushal Malla, who remained unbeaten on 85 off 47 balls, while captain Rohit Paudel added a blistering 69 not out off 21 deliveries to accelerate the innings in the final overs.<\/p>\n
Chasing a daunting target of 314, China never recovered from early breakthroughs, losing wickets at regular intervals as Nepal\u2019s bowling unit maintained control throughout the innings.<\/p>\n
Sompal Kami and Sandeep Lamichhane struck early, while Kushal Malla produced a decisive spell of 3 for 0 in 1.2 overs, dismantling the lower order as China collapsed to 92 all out in 19.2 overs.<\/p>\n
For China, Shenjian Zheng top-scored with 31 off 15 balls, but lacked support as Nepal\u2019s spinners and medium pacers shared wickets across the innings, ensuring a comprehensive victory in the tournament opener.<\/p>\n
Kami returned figures of two for 11 from three overs, while Lamichhane claimed two for 29 from his four overs with tight middle-overs control.<\/p>\n
Malla delivered the standout spell of the match, taking three wickets without conceding a run in 1.2 overs, dismantling the tail and sealing Nepal\u2019s dominance in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nepal produced a dominant performance to defeat China by 221 runs in the opening Group A match of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-705808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}