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2023 ACC Men's Premier Cup

Dates	18 April – 2 May 2023
Administrator(s)	Asian Cricket Council
Cricket format	One Day International
Tournament format(s)	Group round-robin and knockout
Host(s)	Nepal
Champions	Nepal (1st title)
Runners-up	United Arab Emirates
Participants	10
Matches	24
Player of the series	Sandeep Lamichhane
Most runs	Vriitya Aravind (454)
Most wickets	Bilal Khan (17)
2024 →

The 2023 ACC Men's Premier Cup was a cricket tournament which took place in April and May 2023. It was the inaugural edition of the ACC Men's Premier Cup, and it served as the final stage of qualification for the 2023 Asia Cup tournament. It was held in Nepal, with the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground and Mulpani International Cricket Ground hosting matches. The winner of the tournament qualified for the 2023 Asia Cup. The top three teams including also qualified for the 2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup.

The Asian Cricket Council announced the schedule for the tournament on 23 March 2023. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia qualified to participate in this tournament as the top two teams in the 2023 ACC Men's Challenger Cup, where Saudi Arabia had beaten Bahrain by 10 wickets in the final.

Nepal defeated United Arab Emirates in the final and qualified for the 2023 Asia Cup. In addition to the two finalists, Oman advanced to the 2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup tournament after the 3rd place play-off ended with no result.

Teams and qualifications

Following teams were qualified for the tournament.

Means of qualification	Venue	Nos.	Teams
ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings	—	8	United Arab Emirates    Nepal  Oman  Hong Kong  Malaysia  Qatar  Kuwait  Singapore
2023 ACC Men's Challenger Cup	Thailand	2	Saudi Arabia  Bahrain
Total		10

Squads

Bahrain	Hong Kong	Kuwait	Malaysia	Nepal
Haider Butt (c) Abdul Majid Fiaz Ahmed Sohail Ahmed Waseeq Ahmed Imran Anwar Junaid Aziz Shahbaz Badar (wk) Rizwan Butt Ali Dawood David Mathias Sai Sarthak Sathaiya Veerapathiran Muhammad Younis	Nizakat Khan (c) Zeeshan Ali (wk) Haroon Arshad Mohammad Ghazanfar Adit Gorawara (wk) Babar Hayat Aizaz Khan Ehsan Khan Yasim Murtaza Nasrulla Rana Anshuman Rath Kinchit Shah Ayush Shukla Shahid Wasif	Mohammed Aslam (c) Ilyas Ahmed Mohammad Amin Clinto Anto Meet Bhavsar (wk) Adnan Idrees Shiraz Khan Parvindar Kumar Sayed Monib Usman Patel (wk) Yasin Patel Shahrukh Quddus Ravija Sandaruwan Bilal Tahir	Ahmad Faiz (c) Virandeep Singh (vc, wk) Muhammad Amir Wan Azam Syed Aziz Rizwan Haider Khizar Hayat Sharvin Muniandy Anwar Rahman Nazril Rahman Fitri Sham Muhamad Syahadat Vijay Unni Muhammad Wafiq	Rohit Paudel (c) Dipendra Singh Airee Kushal Bhurtel Pratis GC Gulsan Jha Sompal Kami Karan KC Sandeep Lamichhane Gyanendra Malla Kushal Malla Lalit Rajbanshi Bhim Sharki Aarif Sheikh Aasif Sheikh (wk)
Oman	Qatar	Saudi Arabia	Singapore	United Arab Emirates
Zeeshan Maqsood (c) Aqib Ilyas (vc) Fayyaz Butt Sandeep Goud Kaleemullah Ayaan Khan Bilal Khan Shoaib Khan Naseem Khushi (wk) Mohammad Nadeem Jay Odedra Kashyap Prajapati Adeel Shafique (wk) Jatinder Singh	Mohammed Rizlan (c, wk) Owais Ahmed Amir Farooq Zaheer Ibrahim Ikramullah Khan Kamran Khan Imal Liyanage (wk) Gayan Munaweera Muhammad Murad Mohammed Nadeem Khurram Shahzad Muhammad Tanveer Valeed Veetil Sandun Withanage	Hisham Sheikh (c) Zain Ul Abidin (vc) Ishtiaq Ahmad Manan Ali Imran Arif Atif-Ur-Rehman Ahmed Baladraf Haseeb Ghafoor (wk) Saad Khan Usman Najeeb Waqar Ul Hassan Abdul Waheed Abdul Wahid Zuhair	Aritra Dutta (c) Vinoth Baskaran Abdul Rahman Bhadelia Adwitya Bhargava Surendran Chandramohan Avi Dixit Ramesh Kalimuthu Amartya Kaul Vinit Mehta Aaryan Modi Thilipan Omaidurai Prasheen Param Akshay Puri Rohan Rangarajan Manpreet Singh (wk) Sidhant Srikanth	Muhammad Waseem (c) Vriitya Aravind (wk) Basil Hameed Aayan Afzal Khan Asif Khan Matiullah Khan Zahoor Khan Aryan Lakra Karthik Meiyappan Rohan Mustafa Rameez Shahzad Sanchit Sharma Junaid Siddique Ansh Tandon

Warm-up matches

Oman  249/9 (50 overs)	v	Bahrain 198 (45.2 overs)
Zeeshan Maqsood 69 (105) Rizwan Butt 2/33 (6 overs)		Sohail Ahmed 84 (104) Bilal Khan 4/52 (8.2 overs)

Oman  246/9 (50 overs)	v	Nepal 249/5 (44.4 overs)
Shoaib Khan 110* (123) Kishore Mahato 3/27 (8 overs)		Arjun Saud 67 (87) Zeeshan Maqsood 2/60 (10 overs)

Bahrain  175 (49.4 overs)	v	Kuwait 176/9 (40.1 overs)
Rizwan Butt 47 (59) Ilyas Ahmed 3/27 (6 overs)		Parvindar Kumar 47 (36) Waseeq Ahmed 2/23 (5 overs)

Group stage

Group A

Points table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	T	NR	Pts	NRR
1	Nepal	4	3	0	0	1	7	1.497
2	Oman	4	3	1	0	0	6	0.377
3	Malaysia	4	2	2	0	0	4	0.240
4	Saudi Arabia	4	1	2	0	1	3	−1.101
5	Qatar	4	0	4	0	0	0	−1.056

  Advanced to the knockout stage

Fixtures

Malaysia  235/9 (50 overs)	v	Nepal 237/4 (36.2 overs)
Ahmad Faiz 76 (95) Sompal Kami 3/40 (9 overs)		Bhim Sharki 71 (98) Virandeep Singh 1/37 (7 overs)

• Malaysia won the toss and elected to bat.

Oman  249/8 (50 overs)	v	Qatar 209 (47.2 overs)
Ayaan Khan 64* (59) Muhammad Murad 3/47 (10 overs)		Mohammed Rizlan 43 (69) Bilal Khan 4/42 (8.2 overs)

• Qatar won the toss and elected to field.

Saudi Arabia  153 (46.2 overs)	v	Malaysia 154/2 (21.2 overs)
Haseeb Ghafoor 40 (78) Khizar Hayat 3/13 (10 overs)		Muhammad Amir 56 (44) Zain Ul Abidin 2/46 (8.2 overs)

• Malaysia won the toss and elected to field.

Nepal    310/8 (50 overs)	v	Oman 226 (46.3 overs)
Kushal Malla 108 (64) Ayaan Khan 2/46 (5 overs)		Mohammad Nadeem 65 (84) Sandeep Lamichhane 3/45 (8 overs)

• Oman won the toss and elected to field.
• Adeel Shafique (Oma) made his ODI debut.
• Kushal Malla (Nep) scored his first century in ODIs.
• Kushal Malla scored the fastest ODI century by a Nepali cricketer, in terms of number of balls faced (59).
• Sandeep Lamichhane (Nep) became the fastest bowler, in terms of number of matches played, to take 100 wickets in ODIs (42).

Qatar  216 (49.5 overs)	v	Saudi Arabia 220/3 (34.2 overs)
Muhammad Tanveer 46 (84) Ishtiaq Ahmad 4/46 (9.5 overs)		Abdul Waheed 124 (108) Ikramullah Khan 2/28 (5 overs)

• Saudi Arabia won the toss and elected field.

Malaysia  227/9 (50 overs)	v	Oman 228/2 (41.4 overs)
Virandeep Singh 94 (144) Zeeshan Maqsood 4/35 (10 overs)		Jatinder Singh 101* (111) Muhammad Amir 2/26 (6 overs)

• Oman won the toss and elected to field.

Nepal	v	Saudi Arabia

• No toss.
• No play was possible due to rain.

Qatar  215/8 (35 overs)	v	Malaysia 216/7 (34.1 overs)
Imal Liyanage 56 (68) Muhammad Wafiq 2/42 (5 overs)		Syed Aziz 80 (66) Ikramullah Khan 2/35 (5.1 overs)

• Qatar won the toss and elected to bat.
• The match was reduced to 35 overs per side due to a wet outfield.

Oman  366/6 (50 overs)	v	Saudi Arabia 294 (46.5 overs)
Jatinder Singh 88 (79) Atif-Ur-Rehman 3/80 (9 overs)		Abdul Waheed 95 (86) Bilal Khan 4/75 (8.5 overs)

• Saudi Arabia won the toss and elected to field.

Nepal    157 (40.3 overs)	v	Qatar 89 (25.1 overs)
Sandeep Lamichhane 42* (58) Amir Farooq 4/42 (9.3 overs)		Zaheer Ibrahim 15 (23) Sandeep Lamichhane 5/14 (9.1 overs)

• Qatar won the toss and elected to field.

Group B

Points table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	T	NR	Pts	NRR
1	United Arab Emirates	4	3	1	0	0	6	2.468
2	Kuwait	4	3	1	0	0	6	0.223
3	Hong Kong	4	2	1	0	1	5	1.031
4	Bahrain	4	1	2	0	1	3	0.019
5	Singapore	4	0	4	0	0	0	−3.028

  Advanced to the knockout stage

Fixtures

Singapore  174 (42.1 overs)	v	Hong Kong 175/2 (33 overs)
Aritra Dutta 49 (57) Ehsan Khan 4/24 (10 overs)		Babar Hayat 108* (94) Ramesh Kalimuthu 1/31 (7 overs)

• Hong Kong won the toss and elected to field.

United Arab Emirates  371/6 (50 overs)	v	Kuwait 228 (36.3 overs)
Vriitya Aravind 185 (147) Parvindar Kumar 2/45 (3 overs)		Sayed Monib 68 (36) Junaid Siddique 3/32 (7 overs)

• Kuwait won the toss and elected to field.

Bahrain  286/8 (50 overs)	v	Singapore 154 (43.1 overs)
Fiaz Ahmed 79 (59) Vinoth Baskaran 2/32 (10 overs)		Surendran Chandramohan 51 (66) Imran Anwar 4/24 (9 overs)

• Bahrain won the toss and elected to bat.

Hong Kong  263/8 (50 overs)	v	United Arab Emirates 117/6 (27 overs)
Anshuman Rath 106 (117) Aayan Afzal Khan 5/50 (10 overs)		Aryan Lakra 52* (71) Ehsan Khan 2/23 (5 overs)

• United Arab Emirates won the toss and elected to field.
• No further play was possible due to rain.

Bahrain  255/7 (50 overs)	v	Kuwait 258/8 (44.2 overs)
Imran Anwar 53 (19) Sayed Monib 4/69 (10 overs)		Yasin Patel 63* (89) Abdul Majid 3/51 (9 overs)

• Kuwait won the toss and elected to field.

United Arab Emirates  471 (50 overs)	v	Singapore 270/9 (50 overs)
Vriitya Aravind 174 (133) Adwitya Bhargava 4/85 (8 overs)		Manpreet Singh 66 (64) Sanchit Sharma 2/32 (4 overs)

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

Bahrain	v	Hong Kong

• No toss.
• No play was possible due to rain.

Singapore  113 (31.4 overs)	v	Kuwait 118/6 (26.3 overs)
Amartya Kaul 45 (60) Mohammed Aslam 5/20 (8.4 overs)		Adnan Idrees 38 (28) Akshay Puri 2/33 (8.3 overs)

• Kuwait won the toss and elected to field.

Bahrain  116 (40.5 overs)	v	United Arab Emirates 120/2 (27.4 overs)
Ali Dawood 23* (47) Aayan Afzal Khan 4/6 (10 overs)		Vriitya Aravind 62* (84) Abdul Majid 2/29 (10 overs)

• Bahrain won the toss and elected to bat.

Kuwait  272/8 (50 overs)	v	Hong Kong 242 (50 overs)
Shiraz Khan 67 (95) Ehsan Khan 3/49 (10 overs)		Nizakat Khan 60 (97) Shahrukh Quddus 3/27 (8 overs)

• Hong Kong won the toss and elected to field.

Knockout stage

Bracket

	Semi-finals					Final
	A1	Nepal	281/9 (42)
	B2	Kuwait	37/6 (8.3)
						B1	United Arab Emirates	117 (33.1)
						A1	Nepal	118/3 (30.3)
	B1	United Arab Emirates	236 (49.2)
	A2	Oman	190/6 (43)			3rd place play-off
						B2	Kuwait	130 (31.3)
						A2	Oman	41/0 (6)

Semi-finals

1st semi-final

Nepal    281/9 (42 overs)	v	Kuwait 37/6 (8.3 overs)
Rohit Paudel 94 (95) Mohammed Aslam 3/43 (8 overs)		Mohammed Aslam 14 (19) Karan KC 5/10 (4.3 overs)

• Kuwait won the toss and elected to field.
• No further play was possible due to rain.
• Nepal advanced to the final on the basis of finishing higher in the group stage standings.

2nd semi-final

United Arab Emirates  236 (49.2 overs)	v	Oman 190/6 (43 overs)
Muhammad Waseem 48 (31) Zeeshan Maqsood 4/32 (10 overs)		Kashyap Prajapati 49 (43) Karthik Meiyappan 3/42 (7 overs)

• Oman won the toss and elected to field.
• No further play was possible due to rain.
• This was the first ODI match to be held at this venue.

3rd place play-off

Kuwait  130 (31.3 overs)	v	Oman 41/0 (6 overs)
Adnan Idrees 34 (48) Jay Odedra 5/14 (5.3 overs)		Jatinder Singh 26* (19)

• Oman won the toss and elected to field.
• No further play was possible due to rain.
• Oman qualified for the 2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup on the basis of seeding.

Final

United Arab Emirates  117 (33.1 overs)	v	Nepal 118/3 (30.3 overs)
Asif Khan 46 (54) Lalit Rajbanshi 4/14 (7.1 overs)		Gulsan Jha 67* (84) Rohan Mustafa 2/13 (10 overs)

• Nepal won the toss and elected to field.
• The match continued from United Arab Emirates' batting innings at 106/9 (27.3 overs) on the reserve day due to rain.
• Nepal qualified for the 2023 Asia Cup.

Final standings

Pos.	Teams	Remarks
1	Nepal	Qualified for 2023 Asia Cup & 2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup
2	United Arab Emirates	Qualified for 2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup
3	Oman
4	Kuwait
5	Hong Kong
6	Malaysia
7	Bahrain
8	Saudi Arabia
9	Qatar
10	Singapore

References

1. "Men's Asia Cup and Asia Cup Qualifier tournaments announced for 2023". Czarsportz. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
2. "Men's cricket team prepares for ACC Men's Challenger Cup 2023". Kuensel. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
3. "Saudi national cricket team arrives in Nepal ahead of 2023 ACC Premier Cup". Arab News. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
4. "Nepal to host ACC Premier Cup". Cricnepal. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
5. "INVITATION FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST" (PDF). Asian Cricket Council. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
6. "Nepal open ACC Premier Cup against Malaysia". Kathmandu Post. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
7. "আয়োজক ঠিক না করেই চূড়ান্ত এশিয়া কাপের সূচি" [Fixtures of Asia Cup finalized without determining host]. risingbd.com (in Bengali). Retrieved 5 January 2023.
8. @ACCMedia1 (23 March 2023). "The ACC Men's Premier Cup – an integral part of ACC's new pathway structure gets underway on the 18th of April in Nepal. 10 Associate nations will battle it out for the title and the winner will directly qualify for the Men's Asia Cup 2023" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
9. "Saudi Arabia, Bahrain win through ACC Challenger Cup". Cricbuzz. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
10. "Rajabanshi and Jha secure Asia Cup qualification for Nepal". Cricbuzz. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
11. "Nepal qualify for the Asia Cup 2023". Cricnepal. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
12. "Nepal join India, Pakistan for Asia Cup 2023 after winning ACC Men's Premier Cup". India Today. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
13. "Nepal book India, Pakistan meetings at Asia Cup 2023". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
14. "Bahrain squad is gearing up for the 2023 ACC Men's Premier Cup". Bahrain Cricket Federation (via Instagram). Retrieved 9 April 2023.
15. "ACC Premier Cup: Hong Kong 'in a great place' as they name squad for Nepal". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
16. "Kuwait National Men's team led by Captain Mnm Aslam, coached by Muthumudalige Pushpakumara and managed by Mahmoud Abdullah in association with FRiENDi mobile Kuwait & powered by Al Muzaini Exchange Co. is all set to depart tonight to Kathmandu, Nepal for the Asian Cricket Council Asia Cup Qualifiers scheduled to take place from 18th of April onwards until the 2nd of May". Kuwait Cricket Official (via Facebook). Retrieved 13 April 2023.
17. "The National Team lineup who will be in Nepal for the ACC Men's Premier Cup 2023". Malaysian Cricket Association (via Facebook). Retrieved 11 April 2023.
18. "Final squad named for ACC Premier Cup". Kathmandu Post. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
19. "Confident Oman all set to take part in ACC Men's Premier Cup in Nepal". Times of Oman. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
20. "ACC Men's Premier Cup - Nepal". Qatar Cricket Association (via Facebook). Retrieved 19 April 2023.
21. "Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Premier Cup Squad – Singapore". Singapore Cricket Association. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
22. "UAE squad for ACC Premier Cup 2023 announced". Emirates Cricket Board. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
23. "Kushal makes his first century". Khabarhub. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
24. "Nepal thump Oman as records tumble". The Kathmandu Post. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
25. "Sandeep Lamichhane fastest to complete 100 ODI wickets". Cricnepal. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
26. "Nepal and UAE through to ACC Premier Cup final". Cricbuzz. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
27. @CricketNep (29 April 2023). "Oman have won the toss and chose to bowl first against UAE in the first-ever ODI match to be held at the Mulpani Cricket Ground" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
28. "Oman through to ACC Emerging Teams Cup as rain decided third place play-off". Cricbuzz. Retrieved 30 April 2023.

External links

• Series home at ESPNcricinfo

• Asia Cup Qualifiers
• Asian Cricket Council competitions
• International cricket competitions in 2022–23
• April 2023 sports events in Asia
• May 2023 sports events in Asia
• International cricket competitions in Nepal