Asian Games Cricket: Nepal stun silver medalists Afghanistan, spice up Thursday’s race

Brief Scores: Nepal (103/5 in 17.2 overs) beat Afghanistan (102//7 in 20 overs) by 5 wickets in a Group A match at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin on Friday.

Nepal pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the men’s cricket competition at the Asian Games when they beat Afghanistan by five wickets in their Group A match on Friday to blow the quarter-final race wide open.

Afghanistan, who opened their campaign with a 48-run win over hosts Japan, were restricted to 102/7 after being sent in to bat at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin. Nepali bowlers soon came into their own, with Hassan Eisakhil dismissed for a two-ball duck, Mohammad Akram falling for 2 off 8 and Karim Janat just 9. | Nepal vs Afghanistan Scorecard |

Kushal Bhurtel was the pick of Nepal’s attack and finished with four wickets while Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi claimed three. Afghanistan struggled to build a partnership but Faisal Shinozada and Najibullah Zadran made 30 while Nangeyalia Kharote remained unbeaten on 17 off 15 as they reached 102/7 in their 20 overs.

Nepal’s chase did not start smoothly. Bhurtel was dismissed for a duck off the second ball of the innings and Aasif Sheikh followed with 2 so Nepal were soon under pressure.

Sundeep Jora then leveled the innings with 34 off 35 balls while Rohit Paudel contributed 33 off 32. Their partnership helped Nepal recover before Dipendra Singh Airee added 15. Airee was dismissed as Nepal needed only one run but Gulshan Kumar Jha scored the winning run as Nepal reached over 3.07/5.

WHO WILL FACE INDIA IN QF?

The result significantly complicated the qualifying picture of Group A. The group consists of Afghanistan, Nepal and Japan, with each team playing two matches. The top two advance to the quarter-finals, where they will join the four seeded teams – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Afghanistan now have one win and one loss from their two matches with no matches left. Despite the loss, they remain top of the group in net run rate for now. Nepal have one win from one match and will face Japan in their final group game on Saturday. Meanwhile, Japan lost their opening match against Afghanistan by 48 runs.

That leaves Nepal with a clear path to the round of 16: a win over Japan would move them to two points and put them in a strong position to finish in the top two. Afghanistan’s fate will then depend on the result and clean run.

The qualifying battle has a direct bearing on India as well. The defending champions were given direct entry to the quarterfinals and will face the other team from Group A on September 28.

So Nepal’s upset did more than just set Afghanistan up early. This made India’s potential quarter-final opponent harder to predict as Nepal are now firmly in contention alongside Afghanistan.

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