UAE make light work of Nepal in Twenty20 qualifier

Kabir Khan's side beat the hosts and now face Hong Kong as progress towards World Twenty20 tournament continues.

UAE are on course of a knockout round berth in the Asian Cricket Council Twenty20 Cup after a six-wicket win over the host Nepal today

Kabir Khan's side made it two out of two, adding to the four-wicket win over Kuwait, to top the five-team Group B and will now meet Hong Kong tomorrow and Saudi Arabia on December 8.

The top two from each group will advance to the knockout phase of the competition, and the top three teams along with Afghanistan will qualify for the ICC World T20 qualifiers in the UAE from March 13 to 24.

The spinners took all eight wickets to fall to restrict Nepal to 95 for nine and then Shaiman Butt hit a run-a-ball 33 to see his side through with nine balls left at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur.

Butt was behind the fall of the first wicket when he ran out Anil Mandal (5) for the first wicket to fall at 19 in the third over.

Shadeep Silva, the left arm spinner, brought into the attack in the fourth over, struck a double blow by getting one through the defences of Subash Khakurel (14), the opener, and had Gyanendra Malla (0) trapped three balls later to leave them at 26 for three.

Ahmed Raza returned with three for 12 from his fours overs while Silva (2-18 from four), Rohan Mustafa (2-13 from three) and Khurram Khan (1-17 from four) bowled in tandem to leave their batsmen with a manageable task.

Yet, they were given a hard time before Vikrant Shetty, the hero of the first match, hit 10 not out and Abdul Rahman (19 not out) took them to safety with a 34-run stand for the seventh wicket after Nepal had reduced them to 65 for four in 12.5 overs.