The ACC Premier Cup - the final stage in qualifying for the next men's T20 Asia Cup - began yesterday in Oman with wins for the hosts, UAE, Nepal and Hong Kong.

Group B matches took place in the first session on day one, with hosts Oman batting first after Bahrain won the toss. Knocks of 62 by Aqib Ilyas and an unbeaten 45 from 25 balls by captain Zeeshan Maqsood helped the home team post 177-3 from their 20 overs. Imran Ali top scored with 50 in the Bahrain reply, but they were just short of their target, scoring 174-8 to lose by three runs.

In the other Group B match, Kuwait were put into bat by UAE captain Muhammad Waseem and scored 178-8 from their 20 overs, Clinto Anto top scoring with 54 from 23 balls. The UAE lost two wickets from the first two balls of their reply, and were 26-3 after four overs. Alishan Sharafu and Asif Khan then added an unbroken 153 partnership, scoring 90 and 74 respectively to secure a seven wicket win.

In Group A matches in the afternoon, Malaysia batted first after captain Virandeep Singh won the toss, and it was Singh who led the way for them in their total of 143-4, top scoring with an unbeaten 72. Nepal took until the final over to chase down their target, winning by five wickets with four balls to spare.

The highest score of the day came when Hong Kong won the toss and chose to bat first against Qatar. Recovering from losing both openers for just four, they posted 201-7 with Nizakat Khan and Babar Hayat contributing 59 and 55 respectively. Ehsan Khan then took 4-31 to help keep Qatar to 175-8, securing a 26 run win for Hong Kong.