Kathmandu, Feb. 17: Record-breaking half centuries from Kushal Malla and Dipendra Singh Airee helped Nepal defeat Scotland by three wickets in a tri-series match under the ICC World Cup League 2 at the Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground on Friday.

For Nepal, opener Kushal Bhurtel scored 16 runs off 8 balls including 4 boundaries. Another opener Aasif Sheikh scored 9 runs off 14 balls with the help of two fours.

Former captain Gyanendra Malla made a cameo appearance scoring just 4 runs in 3 balls while Captain Rohit Paudel also had a disappointing day as he contributed a paltry 6 runs from 10 balls before being  caught out by Jarvis Watt. After captain Rohit was caught out, quickfire Kushal Malla steered the innings of Nepal scoring 81 runs off 67 balls with the help of 9 fours and 4 sixes. It is Malla’s highest score in ODIs.

Sundeep Zora scored 5 runs while Dipendra Singh Airee scored 85 runs off 116 balls. It was Airee’s second fifty in ODIs. He has also scored a century. It was also  his first fifty in World Cup League Two. 

Gulsan Jha scored 17 runs while Sompal Kami scored an unbeaten 24 runs off 32 balls. Malla shared a 100 run partnership with Airee for the sixth wicket. Aerie and Sompal shared an unbeaten 55-run partnership for the eighth wicket as Nepal met the target of 275 runs with 18 balls to spare.

Chris Soule and Watt took 3 wickets apiece for Scotland. Scotland gave 16 extra runs. Before that, Scotland, who opted to bat first, scored 274 runs losing 9 wickets in the allotted 50 overs.

For Scotland, Michael Lisk played a century innings of 107 runs off 85 balls. He hit 3 fours and 9 sixes.

This is his first century in ODIs. Jack Jarkiv, who made his debut on Friday’s match against Nepal, scored 26 runs.

Brandon McMullan and Christopher McMullan scored 22 runs each and Thomas McIntosh and Watt scored 20 runs. Captain Richie Berrington scored 19 runs. Chris Grave contributed 16 runs.

Scotland, who lost the sixth wicket for 111 runs, completed 274 runs with the loss of 9 wickets. Michael Leagues and Jack Jarvis shared 81 runs for the seventh wicket. For Nepal, Sandeep Lamichhane took 3 wickets giving away 27 runs in 10 overs. Kushal Malla took 2 wickets and Sompal Kami, Dipendra Singh Airee and Kushal Bhurtel took 1 wicket each.

In the series, Nepal is in the sixth position with 22 points from 26 matches. Scotland top the seven-nation group of World Cup League Two with 48 points including 23 wins and 9 losses from 34 games with just three games left.