Nepal has lost to Kuwait by 1 wicket in the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) U-19s Asia Cup cricket tournament. In the match held in Dubai earlier today, Kuwait surpassed the Nepali total of 239 runs with 7 balls remaining and only one wicket in hand.Earlier after being put into bat first, Nepal posted a total of 239 runs after losing all wickets in 48.5 overs. Bibek Magar (50) and Bashir Ahamad (56) were the notable contributors to the Nepali total, along with Mohammad Adil Aalam who scored 49 runs.

For Kuwait, Mirza Ahmed and Abdul Sadiq took 3 wickets each while Henry Thomas and Mohammad Bastaki two 2 wickets a piece to restrict the Nepali total.In reply, riding on a massive 175 runs in 149 balls by opener and captain Meet Bhavsar, Kuwait went past the Nepali total in the last ball of the 49th over. Except another opener Jude Saldanha (25), none of the Kuwati batsmen scored in double figures. However, the exceptional batting by Bhavsar denied Nepal a win.
Nepali bowlers Gulsan Jha took 3 wickets while Sher Malla, Bashir Ahamad and Bibek Yadav took 2 wickets each. With this loss to Kuwait, Nepal is now out of the competition.

In the previous match, Nepal lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Despite winning today’s match, Kuwait also failed to enter the semifinals of the tournament. It had also lost the previous two games.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have reached the semifinals from Group B that included Nepal. Pakistan and India have reached the semifinals from Group A while Afghanistan and the UAE have been eliminated.