KATHMANDU: Nepal has lost the first match of the Nepal Women’s T20I Tri-Series at Kirtipur today. Nepal lost to the Netherlands by 20 runs.

Chasing a tough target of 158 runs set by the Netherlands, Nepal could only score 137 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 20 overs.

Sita Rana Magar top-scored for Nepal with 28 runs. Sita hit 3 fours in 45 balls. Similarly, Kavita Joshi scored 27 and Pooja Mahato scored 24 runs.

Eva Lynch and Caroline de Lange took 2 wickets each for the Netherlands. Iris Willing and Frederik Overdijk took 1 wicket each.

Earlier, the Netherlands, who had batted first after losing the toss at the Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground, Kirtipur, had scored 157 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 20 overs.

Robin Rickey played an unbeaten half-century for the Netherlands. She scored 59 runs in 48 balls with 8 fours. Similarly, Iris Willing played a finishing innings of 31 runs off 13 balls.

For Nepal, Kavita Kunwar, Pooja Mahato, Sita Rana Magar and Ishwori Bista took one wicket each. The highest target that Nepal has achieved in women’s T20Is is 116 runs. This target will be challenging for Nepal.

Two players also made their debuts for Nepal. Alisa Kumari Yadav and Manisha Upadhyay made their debuts.
All the teams will play 3 matches each against each other in the series. Nepal will play the second match against Thailand on Saturday. They will play against the Netherlands on Magh 20, Thailand on Magh 22, Netherlands on Magh 23 and Thailand on Magh 25.

Since there will be no final, the team that wins the most matches and scores the highest points by the end of all the matches will be the winner of the series.