Tournament favourites Nepal has tasted their unlikely defeat against Qatar by 4 wickets in their first match of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualfiers on tuesday.
There are no certainties in sport. That’s what Nepal team management and the whole cricket loving fans are saying right now.
Nepal arrived in Singapore hoping to clinch the trophy and qualify for the Global qualifier in Dubai but were shattered after their first defeat, which might bring some hiccups in the later part of the tournment.
Winning the toss and deciding to bat first, after a delay start due to pitch repair, Nepal chose six bowlers and five batsman in their playing XI. Paras Khadka brought himself up as a opener with Gyanendra Malla. The opening pair added 49 runs in 6 overs, Khadka quick fired 28 runs off 17 with four boundaries and a six and Malla followed him in ninth over after adding run a ball 23 runs.
The loss of experience batters earlier exposed the middle order but only Dipendra Singh Airee could repair the loss and started building the innings. His valuable 34 runs from 35 balls helped Nepal to achieve a modest total in T20 standard.
However, Nepal innings was expecting a solid finish from the likes of Sharad Vesawkar and Binod Bhandari but they failed miserably. Vesawkar struggled from the start and ate 13 balls from his 7 runs with no boundaries. All eyes were on Bhandari, who struck fastest half-century (51 off 25 balls) against Malaysia, failed in important stage. He was out for 3 off 7 balls. Only Sompal Kami had double digit figure in that middle and lower middle order.
