The last ball was shot on the pitch. The oldest rivalry in storytelling has occurred in our minds.
On Sunday, England defended 184 against Nepal in their T20 World Cup opener. The Himalayan Kingdom needed a six off the last ball. Sam Curran had the ball. Lokesh Bam had the bat. Karan KC was on the other side.
Sam vs Bam. David vs Goliath. Wham Bam good night Sam? The crowd at the Wankhede held its breath and question.
In 2024, David exceeded expectations. Nepal lost to South Africa by just one run. Will the underdog win today?
The marks till the last end were promising. Jofra Archer, Luke Wood and Adil Rashid were bowled out by the Nepalese batsmen. Only 10 were needed. But Curran’s low yorkers held their shape.
When the last delivery fell into the fielder’s hands at deep cover, the whole of the Wankhede could hear England exhale. England run out by four runs, with defeat on the scoreboard. But the stadium, the pundits and the cricketing world knew better.
Something has shifted.
That was, those six balls, the moment the T20 World Cup stopped being a tournament about favorites and became a story of disruption. Nepal won hearts in Mumbai on Sunday (AP photo)
INTERFERENCE
The first week of the T20 World Cup shattered one of cricket’s oldest assumptions: that there are minnows in international cricket. As Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus has stated, it is high time to remove the Associate and Minnow labels.
The 10-nation tournament saw teams like Nepal, the USA and the Netherlands put in performances that blurred the lines between established powers and emerging powers. They all came within striking distance against England, India and Pakistan and lost only because of dropped catches or defeat defying brilliance from Curran and Suryakumar Yadav.
ROM YAWN TO YARN
When the draw for the 10 Associated Nations tournament was announced, the collective response was a polite shrug. The group stages were meant to be formalities, glorified net sessions for the big nations to tune up before the actual tournament began.
Analysts made predictable gains. The broadcasters scheduled their main commentary teams for the later rounds. Fans marked their calendars for Super 8s, not openers.
Thank God they were all wrong.
These so-called minnows belied all fears of a dull start. Nepal vs England wasn’t a warm-up, it was edge-of-the-seat theater with Wankhede roaring like in a knockout final.
USA making India work for their victory was not a 300-run fest for Suryakumar Yadav and his batting. It was a real competition, a trial by fire. Netherlands challenging Pakistan turned what should have been a routine win into a doomsday scenario with the fans in Karachi being knocked out. India survived a shocker against the US in Mumbai on Saturday (AP photo)
The first few matches aren’t just a wake-up call for the tournament; they electrified it. The group stage has become mandatory cricket precisely because nothing is guaranteed.
This tournament reminds us why global competitions exist and what happens when passion meets preparation, when the underdog gets his moment, when the script is thrown out and sport becomes truly surprising again.
WHY FORMAT MATTER
T20 is the great democratizer of cricket. Twenty overs provides enough time for individual brilliance to outweigh systemic advantages. One explosive batter can score 70 from 35 balls and change the whole face of the chase. One inspired spell of bowling can strangle even the deepest batting line-up.
Traditional cricket formats allow class to prevail in the end. In the tests, the depth of talent will be revealed over five days. In ODIs, it will smooth out the deviation of 50 overs. But T20 is pure volatility. Four bad overs, even bowled by Archer, can cost 60 runs, three dropped catches can affect the outcome, one purple stain from the batter can overcome decades of infrastructure.
Franchise leagues accelerated this democratization. Players from associated countries now regularly compete in the IPL, CPL, Big Bash and other tournaments where they face elite bowlers and batsmen in high-pressure situations. These experiences translate directly into World Cups, closing the gap that once separated associates from regular members. When the Nepali batsmen hit Archer, they were not impressed, they had seen pace like him in franchise cricket.
PARALLEL WORLD CUP IN FOOTBALL
Cricket is learning what football has long known: global tournaments breed upsets. Saudi Arabia stunning Argentina in 2022, South Korea knocking out Germany in 2018, Costa Rica’s dream run in 2014 and Roger Mill’s Cameroon magic in 1990 are part of sporting lore.
In soccer, these results occur because tournament pressure and single-elimination formats reward preparation, passion and perfect timing over sustained dominance.
But T20 cricket may actually be more prone to upsets than football. In football, one goal is huge; teams can back off and defend a 1-0 lead. In T20, teams score 150-180 runs, creating more inflection points. A 70 from one bat can win a match, a brilliant over can turn the tide. The shorter format amplifies both brilliance and mistakes, making every match truly unpredictable.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The 2026 FIFA World Cup extends cricket’s reach with attention-grabbing performances. Teams are putting in performances that threaten to reshape the knockout stages and challenge basic assumptions about cricket’s hierarchy.
The question is no longer whether associate nations can compete with full members in T20 cricket. Nepal, USA and Netherlands have definitely answered it. The question now is: who will be the first associated nation to actually win one of these tournaments?
Based on Nepal’s fearless batting, the USA’s growing infrastructure and the Netherlands’ consistent excellence, that day may come sooner than the cricket establishment expects. When that happens, we look back at Sam defending those last six balls against Bam as the dam started to crack.
And the Davids became the new Goliaths.
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– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
February 9, 2026
