Michael Leask’s unbeaten century was not enough to prevent Scotland losing by three wickets to Nepal in Kirtipur.

The hosts overhauled that total with 18 balls to spare, with Kushal Malla putting on 81 and Dipendra Singh Airee not out on 85.

Leask had clobbered nine sixes on his way to 107 not out from 85 balls and later took one wicket.

Chris Sole and Mark Watt each took three wickets but could not prevent hosts Nepal from picking up just their 10th win of the tournament.

Scotland had earned a 23rd victory on Wednesday against Namibia to clinch first place in the seven-team table.

They will end a successful campaign with games against Namibia (20 February) and Nepal a day later.

Christopher McBride and Brandon McMullen were the best of the early Scotland batters, each reaching 22 before Leask came in at number seven to record his first one-day international century.

Bowler Jack Jarvis, 19, pitched in with 26 runs in his first ODI, while fellow-debutant Tomas Mackintosh, 20, got to 19 batting at number three.

Scotland pay for ‘sloppy mistakes’

“It was good to see Tom Mackintosh and Jack Jarvis make their debuts,” head coach Shane Burger told Cricket Scotland. “They both started well with the bat and will have been disappointed to get out when they did, but they have exciting futures.

“To get up to 274 on that wicket after we had struggled earlier on was a great effort, and to see Michael Leask get his first ODI hundred was special.

“I was really happy with what we had posted as a score and it should have been enough for us, but it wasn’t.

“With the ball, I was really disappointed. We were ill-disciplined, we didn’t execute our plans and our fielding was also poor. We gave away far too many extras (28) and made sloppy mistakes. It was very unsatisfactory and not what we pride ourselves on – we set much higher standards than that.”