Nepal beat Malaysia by seven wickets in Kathmandu Valley Thursday to lift the Under-19 Youth Asia Cup-2001 cricket trophy and qualify for the U-19 World Cup finals in New Zealand to be played February next year. Nepal easily scored the target of 140 runs for the loss of only

three wickets in 40 overs.

Malaysia elected to bat after winning the toss. They started well with an opening partnership of 45 runs without losing a wicket, but went all out for 139 runs in 49.1 overs. Captain Arul Vivasvan was top scorer for Malaysia hitting 30 runs.

Kanishka Chaulagai and Yaswant Subedi of Nepal scored 50 runs in an opening partnership in 15 overs before Subedi was out lbw to a delivery from Arul Vivasvan.  Spinner Lakpa Lama who took five wickets in the finals was declared man of the match and the series. Opener Kanishka Chaugai was the highest scorer with 70 runs not out.

“Nepal played very well. Our bowlers were not upto the mark today. Some of my boys were also overawed by the crowd. At home we do not get a crowd of more than 500. The audience strength probably was 15,000 strong  today. But they behaved well,” Malaysian team manager C.Sivanandan said.