2023 Nepal Tri-Nation Series (round 21)

The 2023 Nepal Tri-Nation Series was the 21st, and last, round of the 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 cricket tournament took place in Nepal in March 2023.^[1] It was a tri-nation series between Nepal, Papua New Guinea and the United Arab Emirates cricket teams,^[2] with the matches played as One Day International (ODI) fixtures.^[3] The ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 formed part of the qualification pathway to the 2023 Cricket World Cup.^[4][5] Going into the final series of the League 2 tournament, Nepal required four wins from four games to claim the third and final automatic place in the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, at the expense of Namibia.^[6][7]

2023 Nepal Tri-Nation Series
Part of 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2
Date	9–16 March 2023
Location	Nepal
Teams    Nepal  Papua New Guinea  United Arab Emirates Captains Rohit Paudel Assad Vala Muhammad Waseem Most runs Aasif Sheikh (163) Assad Vala (127) Muhammad Waseem (224) Most wickets Sandeep Lamichhane (12) Riley Hekure (8) Aayan Afzal Khan (7)
← UAE 2023 →

Squads

Nepal[8]	Papua New Guinea[9]	United Arab Emirates[10]
Rohit Paudel (c) Dipendra Singh Airee Kushal Bhurtel Pratis GC Gulsan Jha Sompal Kami Karan KC Sandeep Lamichhane Gyanendra Malla (wk) Kushal Malla Lalit Rajbanshi Bhim Sharki Aarif Sheikh Aasif Sheikh (wk)	Assad Vala (c) Charles Amini Sese Bau Kiplin Doriga (wk) Riley Hekure Hiri Hiri Semo Kamea John Kariko Kabua Morea Alei Nao Chad Soper Gaudi Toka Tony Ura Norman Vanua Hila Vare (wk)	Muhammad Waseem (c) Vriitya Aravind (wk) Hazrat Bilal Zawar Farid Aayan Afzal Khan Asif Khan Zahoor Khan Aryan Lakra Karthik Meiyappan Rohan Mustafa Chundangapoyil Rizwan Aryansh Sharma (wk) Junaid Siddique Ashwanth Valthapa

Nepal named Kamal Singh Airee, Mousom Dhakal, Sundeep Jora and Arjun Saud as reserves in their squad.^[11]

Fixtures

1st ODI

9 March 2023 09:30 Scorecard

Nepal    297 (49.1 overs)	v	Papua New Guinea 245 (47.1 overs)
Aasif Sheikh 110 (110) Semo Kamea 5/38 (9.1 overs)		Norman Vanua 60 (55) Sandeep Lamichhane 4/37 (10 overs)

Nepal won by 52 runs Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Vinay Kumar Jha (Nep) and Raveendra Wimalasiri (SL) Player of the match: Aasif Sheikh (Nep)

• Papua New Guinea won the toss and elected to field.
• Aasif Sheikh (Nep) scored his first century in ODIs,^[12] and also passed 1,000 runs in ODIs.^[13]
• Semo Kamea (PNG) took his first five-wicket haul in ODIs.^[14][15]
• Nepal's score of 297 was their highest total in ODIs.^[16]

2nd ODI

10 March 2023 09:30 Scorecard

Papua New Guinea  246/9 (50 overs)	v	United Arab Emirates 190 (42.2 overs)
Sese Bau 81* (106) Aayan Afzal Khan 3/34 (10 overs)		Aryan Lakra 51 (72) Riley Hekure 3/16 (7.2 overs)

Papua New Guinea won by 56 runs Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Vinay Kumar Jha (Nep) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Sese Bau (PNG)

• United Arab Emirates won the toss and elected to field.

3rd ODI

12 March 2023 09:30 Scorecard

Nepal    248 (49.2 overs)	v	United Arab Emirates 71 (22.5 overs)
Rohit Paudel 77 (112) Zawar Farid 2/9 (3 overs)		Aayan Afzal Khan 29 (33) Lalit Rajbanshi 5/20 (7.5 overs)

Nepal won by 177 runs Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) and Raveendra Wimalasiri (SL) Player of the match: Rohit Paudel (Nep)

• Nepal won the toss and elected to bat.
• Ashwanth Valthapa (UAE) made his ODI debut.
• Lalit Rajbanshi (Nep) took his first five-wicket haul in ODIs.^[17]
• United Arab Emirates' score of 71 was their lowest total in ODIs.^[18]

4th ODI

13 March 2023 09:30 Scorecard

Papua New Guinea  95 (32 overs)	v	Nepal 100/1 (7.4 overs)
Assad Vala 20 (31) Sandeep Lamichhane 5/25 (10 overs)		Aasif Sheikh 53* (21) Chad Soper 1/30 (2.4 overs)

Nepal won by 9 wickets Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Vinay Kumar Jha (Nep) and Raveendra Wimalasiri (SL) Player of the match: Sandeep Lamichhane (Nep)

• Nepal won the toss and elected to field.

5th ODI

15 March 2023 09:30 Scorecard

Papua New Guinea  234/7 (50 overs)	v	United Arab Emirates 236/4 (38.4 overs)
Assad Vala 65 (92) Hazrat Bilal 4/47 (10 overs)		Muhammad Waseem 119 (76) Riley Hekure 2/24 (7 overs)

United Arab Emirates won by 6 wickets Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Vinay Kumar Jha (Nep) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Muhammad Waseem (UAE)

• Papua New Guinea won the toss and elected to bat.
• John Kariko (PNG) made his ODI debut.
• Muhammad Waseem (UAE) scored his first century in ODIs.^[19][20]

6th ODI

16 March 2023 09:30 Scorecard

United Arab Emirates  310/6 (50 overs)	v	Nepal 269/6 (44 overs)
Asif Khan 101* (42) Dipendra Singh Airee 2/19 (8 overs)		Bhim Sharki 67 (76) Junaid Siddique 3/51 (10 overs)

Nepal won by 9 runs (DLS method) Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur Umpires: Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) and Raveendra Wimalasiri (SL) Player of the match: Asif Khan (UAE)

• United Arab Emirates won the toss and elected to bat.
• No further play was possible due to bad light.
• Asif Khan (UAE) scored his first century in ODIs.^[21]
• Asif Khan scored the fastest century by a player from an associate nation,^[22] and the fourth fastest overall in terms of number of balls faced in an ODI (41).^[23]