Emerging Asia Cup 2023: Abhishek Sharma, R Hangargekar Shine As India A Thrash Nepal A By 9 Wickets

Fiery bowling from Nishant Sindhu and RS Hangargekar followed by a splendid 139-run opening partnership stand between Sai Sudharsan and Abhishek Sharma guided India 'A' to a 9-wicket victory over Nepal in their ACC Mens Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2023 match at R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Monday.

In their next match, India 'A' will face arch-rivals Pakistan at R. Premadasa Stadium on Wednesday. With this win, India have consolidated their position at the top of the points table. Abhishek Sharma scored the highest for India with his classy knock of 87 off 69 balls while Sai Sudharsan played an unbeaten innings of 58 off 52 deliveries.

Chasing a target of 168, India got off to flying as their openers Abhishek Sharma and Sai Sudharsan slammed Nepal bowlers from the beginning of their run chase. It did not take both openers to take India's total beyond the 100-run mark as they kept hammering boundaries at regular intervals.

In the 19th over of the innings, India lost their first wicket as Rohit Paudel broke the 139-run partnership stand between Men in Blue openers, dismissing Sharma for 87.

The right-handed batter Dhruv Jurel then came out to bat and he opened his account with a cracking six, gathering 12 runs in Pawan Sarraf's over with the help of one maximum and boundary.

In the 23rd over, Jurel smashed a six and guided his team home with a 9-wicket victory over Nepal.

Put to bowl first, the Men in Blue skittle out their opponents for a meagre total of 167 runs. Rohit Paudel scored the highest for Nepal with his knock of 65 runs off 85 deliveries while Gulsan Jha played a helping innings of 38 runs.

Nishant Sindhu and RS Hangargekar were the stars for India as they bagged four and three wickets hauls respectively.

Brief score: Nepal 167 (Rohit Paudel 65, Gulsan Jha 38; Nishant Sindhu 4-14) vs India 172/1 (Abhishek Sharma 87, Sai Sudharsan 58; Sompal Kami 2-19).