Nepal won the title of of SMS Friendship Cup

                                         

Nepal won the SMS Friendship Cup after defeating Gujarat. Nepal won the title by winning by 18 runs over the home team Gujarat in the final match at Vapi.

Chasing a strong target of 177 runs given by Nepal, Gujarat could score only 158 runs, losing 8 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs.

Captain Umang Rohit Kumar managed to score 40 runs in 28 balls for Gujarat. Similarly, Arya Desai scored 36 runs in 24 balls. Rudra Mayur Patel scored 17 runs and Jaymeet Patel added 15 runs.

Avinash Bohora took 3 wickets and Dipendra Singh Airi took 2 wickets for Nepal. Karan K.C. and Kushal Malla took 1-1 wickets.

Before that, Nepal, who won the toss and batted first in Gujarat's Vapi, scored 176 runs losing 4 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs. For Nepal, captain Rohit Paudel scored 74 runs in 47 balls including 5 fours and 4 sixes.

Nepal had a slow start. In the third ball of the fifth over, opener Kushal Bhurtel scored 19 runs in 21 balls and was bowled by Shane Patel. When he got out, the team's score was 21 runs.

The second wicket fell in the 15th over. After a partnership of 77 runs with captain Rohit Paudel, Ashif Sheikh hit 34 runs off 34 balls and returned to the pavilion after being dismissed by Jala Yuvraj Singh.

As the third wicket, Rohit was dismissed in the 19th over by Tejash Patel. Dipendra Singh Airey scored 7 runs in 3 balls in the last over and was caught out by Jaymeet Patel.

Kushal Mall remained unbeaten with 31 runs off 13 balls while on the other hand Sandeep Zora remained unbeaten with 7 runs off 3 balls.

Shane Patel, Tejash Patel, Jala Yuvraj Singh and Jaymeet Patel took 1 wicket each for Gujarat.

Nepal entered the final by winning 3 out of 4 matches in the league stage. Before losing against Baroda in the last match, Nepal had already made its place in the final. Gujarat entered the final with 2 wins in 4 matches. Today's match was the last match for Nepal before the Premier Cup in Oman.

The Nepali team will leave for Oman directly from India. In the Premier Cup, Nepal is in the group consisting of Malaysia, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Nepal will face Malaysia on April 12, Qatar on April 13, Hong Kong on April 15 and Saudi Arabia on April 17. The top two teams in the group will play in the semi-finals.