31 October, Kathmandu. Nepal lost to Canada by 24 runs in the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 match being held in Oman on Saturday.

Chasing a target of 257 runs in the match at Al Amret Cricket Ground in Oman, Nepal lost all wickets in 46 overs and were bowled out for 232 runs. Despite opener Arjun Kumal's good batting and Karan KC's efforts, Nepal was all out before 24 balls.

After winning the first two matches of the series, Nepal has strengthened its chances of the top 6. After this loss, Nepal has fallen to the seventh place in the points table of League 2 consisting of 8 teams. Canada, which has played all 36 matches, has climbed to the sixth position, surpassing Nepal with 29 points.

Now Nepal will have to beat home team Oman in the last match to stay in the top 6. Since the top 6 teams of League 2 have a high chance of retaining ODI recognition, Nepal now has to win the last match.

Already out of the top 4, Nepal has failed to directly qualify for the 2027 One Day World Cup. Now Nepal will have to resort to playoff qualifiers to qualify for the World Cup.

After winning the toss, Canada batted first and scored 256 runs after losing all 10 wickets in the allotted 50 overs on Yubraj Samra's century. Samra played 117 balls and scored 105 runs with the help of 11 fours and 4 sixes.

Another opener Aaron Jones scored 36 runs. Samra and Aaron Johnson shared 72 runs for the first wicket and gave Canada a good start. Samra and Johnson's start helped Canada score well.

Harsh Thacker scored 34 runs and captain Hamza Tariq scored 30 runs. Samit Gohel added 17 runs and Aditya Bardarajan added 12 runs. The rest of the players could not score runs in double figures.

Nepali spinners kept Canada under pressure when they were moving towards a big score. Spinner took all 10 wickets for Nepal. Lalit Rajanshi took the maximum 4 wickets by spending 39 runs keeping 1 maiden in 10 overs. Sandeep Lamichhane took 3 wickets, Dipendra Singh Airi took 2 wickets and Rohit Paudel took 1 wicket.

Brilliant batting by Arjun Kumal

While chasing the target of 257 runs, young opener Arjun Kumal also batted well for Nepal. Arjunal, who is only 13 runs short of scoring his first century in ODIs, has shown good potential. He played 112 balls and scored 87 runs with the help of 4 fours. Arjun, who stayed at the crease for 41 overs, could not be well supported by other players. After Arjun, who fought alone, got out, Nepal lost the rest of the wickets continuously.

For Nepal, Dipendra Singh Airi scored 27 runs, Ishan Pandey and Gulshan Jha scored 21 runs and Asif Sheikh scored 20 runs. Karan KC added 17 runs unbeaten.

Even though Karan handled the innings from one end, Nepal lost 3 wickets in the 46th over and got all out. Canada's Shil Patel took the wickets of Nandan Yadav and Lalit Rajvanshi and Sandeep Lamichhane was run out.

For Canada, Sudjinder Singh took 3 wickets and Kalim Sana and Shil Patel took 2 wickets each.