Nepal has won the ACC U-16 East Zone Cup 2025 after a thrilling 2-wicket victory over Singapore in the final match held on Saturday. With this win, Nepal remained unbeaten throughout the tournament and successfully defended their title.
Chasing a target of 114 runs set by Singapore, Nepal completed the run chase in 29 overs with 8 wickets down. Joy Thapa was the hero of the innings, scoring an unbeaten 24 runs under pressure. Shiwansh Bajgai contributed 20 valuable runs at the top.
Nepal started the chase steadily and reached 40/1, but a sudden collapse saw them stumble to 58/5. Joy Thapa and Shubham Khanal then built a crucial partnership to stabilize the innings. When Shubham was dismissed for 16, Nepal’s score was 91/6, and soon after, they found themselves at a shaky 92/8. From there, Joy led the fightback with three consecutive boundaries and formed a match-winning stand with Abhay Yadav, who sealed the victory with a six.
Singapore’s bowlers, especially Kapish Venkataraman, put up a strong challenge. Venkataraman took 4 wickets, Yuvan Pandey picked up 2, while Akash Teja and Vedansh Gupta claimed 1 wicket each. Despite their efforts, they couldn’t stop Nepal’s determined lower order.
Earlier, Singapore had won the toss and opted to bat first. They were bowled out for 113 runs in 40.5 overs. Rohan Austin top-scored with 23 runs from more than 90 deliveries, and Riaan Naik added 15. Nepal’s bowlers were clinical, with Abhay Yadav taking 3 wickets for 34 runs in his 10-over spell. Sushil Bahadur Rawal also claimed 3 wickets, while Shubham Khanal and captain Bipin Prasad Sharma took 2 and 1 wickets respectively.
This win marks Nepal’s second consecutive ACC U-16 East Zone Cup title, following their 2023 triumph. Nepal had also defeated Singapore in the group stage. Before the tournament was renamed, Nepal had lifted the ACC U-16 Eastern Region Cup in both 2017 and 2019, making this their fourth U-16 regional title overall.
