MUMBAI: With both Nepal and Scotland having withdrawn from the T20 World Cup, Tuesday night’s match at the Wankhede was more of a fight for glory.
Finally, in a match that went from one team to another, Nepal mustered up the courage to surpass the target of 171 runs by seven wickets and four balls to claim their first win of the tournament.
After the win, Nepal players took a lap of honour, paying tribute to the fans who packed the stands in all four matches played in Mumbai, regardless of the outcome. Nepal’s victory was built on an opening wicket stand of 55 balls, 74 runs between Kushal Bhurtel (43; 35b; 1×4, 4×6) and Aasif Sheikh (33; 27b; 2×6). Dipendra Singh Airee (50*; 23b; 4×4, 3×6) and Gulshan Jha (24*; 17b; 1×4, 2×6) took them across the finish line with an unbeaten 36-ball, 73-run stand for the third wicket.
In the opener, Bourtel and Sheikh combined caution with aggression, an approach that made sense as Nepal had previously failed to establish a foothold against Italy and the West Indies. The duo started to show their quality against Scotland and scored 23 runs in the fifth over off the bowling of Mark Watt to help Nepal get on the right track.
Scotland, led by off-spinner Michael Leask (3/20) and left-arm spinner Oliver Davidson (0/31), got back into the game after Leask took charge of Bhurtel, Sheikh and skipper Rohit Paudel (16, 14b; 1×4) in the first three overs, while Nepal were 6-15 Only 63 points were scored in the round.
By the 15th round, Nepal had a winning percentage of 112/3 and needed to score 59 points in the last 5 overs. But Ally scored 19 of the 20 goals Lisk conceded in the final game to calm the nerves.
Score: Nepal 171/3 in 19.2 overs (D Airee 50*, K Bhurtel 43; M Leask 3/30) beat Scotland 170/7 (M Jones 71; S Kami 3/25).
