Nepal defeated Hong Kong by 125 runs in the must-win match to advance to the semi-finals of the ongoing ACC Elite Trophy UAE 2012 played at the ICC Global Cricket Academy, Dubai, on Tuesday.

Electing to bat first after winning the toss, Nepal scored 225 runs target to Hong Kong, losing seven wickets in 50 overs as captain Paras Khadka scored highest of 61 runs, Anil Kumar Mandal 37 runs, Basanta Regmi 31 runs, Gyanendra Malla 28 runs, Pradeep Airee 25 runs, Sharad Vesawkar 14 runs,  and Prithu Baskota 12 runs.

Nepal’s Basanta Regmi and Amrit Bhattarai grabbed three wickets each to restrict Hong Kong just to 100 runs in 37 overs while chasing the target.

Today’s match was the must-win for both the teams to qualify for the next round as both the teams had accumulated four points each from the played three matches.

Host UAE have already qualified for the next round with six points from Group B. Nepal had defeated the UAE in their opener match of the tournament and Saudi Arabia by nine wickets.

Nepal lost against Kuwait by four wickets despite setting huge target of 281 in their second match. nepalnews.com