Nepal’s Sher Malla, second from right, celebrates with teammates (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) Bombay: After Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Nepal seems to be the latest South Asian country to be hit by cricket. Nepal matched two-time world champions England in shots fired and ball for ball. Nepal fell short by just four runs chasing 185 in the T20 World Cup opener against England at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
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In fact, they were constantly in the hunt till the very last ball, with skipper Dipendra Singh Airee (44), Rohit Paudel (39), Bam (39) and Kushal Bhurtel (29) going hammer and tongs on a pitch that Indian batsmen without captain Suryakumar Yadav had found difficult the previous night. Nepal’s commendable show at the Wankhede was enjoyed by their former head coach (from 2023 to February 2025 – a phase in which they qualified for the Asia Cup that year and the T20 World Cup in 2024), Monty Desai, who will follow his ‘boys’ to all their World T20 matches in Mumbai. Desai, also a former West Indies batting coach, has a good idea about the emerging talent in Nepalese cricket, which he says needs “well-designed programs and better infrastructure”. “Nepal has a lot of raw talent which needs to be honed with well-designed programs and better infrastructure. Few would have expected Nepal to put up such a batting show against a formidable side like England yesterday. But these are Asian conditions and the Nepali batsmen are playing very well. From the batsmen’s point of view, they also seem to have worked hard to compete with the significantly higher pace bowlers,” Desai told TOI. One thing that was impressive about Nepal’s spirited chase was the ability of their batsmen to unleash big hits against England’s world-class bowlers with ridiculous ease. “They may not always look traditionally attractive, like classic cover units, but they are effective – they know when to find the boundaries and clear the ropes. There is raw power and belief in this group. They need constant exposure, something they have been able to achieve consistently over the past three years, including hard-fought World Cup qualifying campaigns,” explained Desai. Not only was their performance, which gave England a mighty scare, extraordinary, but their large number of fans who came to Mumbai to cheer their team from all over the world, not just Kathmandu, added a refreshing new color and zest to the tournament. The crowd of 17,000 at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday was dominated by their fans, dressed in blue jerseys with touches of red. Seamer Nandan Yadav, who took an impressive two for 25, greeted his fans who supported their team to get over the line, saying, “That’s the love of our crowd. They always support us. Wherever we go, it’s like a home ground for us. I’m really thankful for that – to all the supporters. I want to apologize for the result. Amazing. Amazing. We said we’ll make it better.” Associate nation Nepal is clearly the rising star of world cricket. Eager to play Test cricket, CAN also started a three-day domestic tournament and asked the ICC to grant it first-class status. However, Nandan admitted that their red-ball home set-up needs to improve. “We need to improve our home circuit, red ball cricket and everything we don’t have now. So for me too it’s a dream to become a Test nation. But yes, it’s a tough job now I think,” said Nandan. Nandan said the fact that Nepal gave such a storied side like England a run for their money was a matter of pride and that the side would improve from the experience. “There’s regret because we came very close and couldn’t get over the line, but at the same time there’s pride because we’re competing against very strong teams like England. Being so close makes us better, so overall it’s a mixture of pride and regret,” he said. Nepal rue the fact that they conceded 45 runs in the last three overs as Will Jacks (39 off 21 balls) ran amok. Nandan admitted that Nepal need to improve their death bowling. “For me personally, there is a lot of talk about my wide balls, so I need to work on that. As a bowling unit, we need to focus more on the death overs,” he said. Nandan said that despite the defeat, Nepal still had hope of making the Super 8. “We have only played our first match so far and it was very close, so we are not really far behind in the Super 8 race. I think we still have a good chance to make the Super 8.”
