23 June, America. Nepal, who returned to the ICC T20 World Cup after 10 years, was expected to put up a good performance against the Netherlands. However, Nepal’s batting in foreign lands remained weak as in the past.
In the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium is in the US, but the splendor and splendor was no less than that of the TU Stadium. The premises inside and outside the stadium were full of supporters with Nepalese jerseys and flags. It was difficult to find Dutch supporters in the stadium.
In the match which started half an hour later than the scheduled time due to rain in the morning, Nepal lost the toss and was invited to bat. When the national anthem was played, it was a proud and emotional moment for Nepalis not only the players, but also the whole stadium, at home and abroad. The decade-long wait made the World Cup even more important.
Frustrated supporters
Openers Kushal Bhurtel and Asif Shaikh, who have been performing poorly in recent times, disappointed the team’s faith in the World Cup as well.
Fast bowler Vivian Kingma started by giving Kushal a dot in the first ball and a run in the second. After that, Asif failed to collect runs in three consecutive length balls. Hit the last ball to long-off for a boundary.
Spinner Tim Pringle was hit by Kushal Bhurtel on the first ball of the second over. Asif, who got a strike in the third ball, could not score runs in consecutive balls. Asif, who played big shots at the dot continuously, was caught out by Vivian Kingma for 4 runs at short third. Asif threw his wicket under the pressure of the dot ball.
Kingma hit Bhurtel with four balls at the start of the third over. Kushal Bhurtel was dismissed lbw for 7 runs off the first ball of Logan Vanbik’s fourth over. At that time, Nepal was 15-2 in 3.1 overs. The Nepalese batsmen played dots in the middle of the opening 18 balls.
Regardless of the pitch, condition and opponent, attention should be paid to score as many runs as possible in the power play. However, Nepal played slowly.
After Kushal’s dismissal, captain Rohit Poudel came in to handle the innings. After collecting two runs in the second ball, he then played three consecutive balls. The last ball was a boundary as a leg-bye. In the fifth over, Kingma hit Anil with four consecutive balls. The fifth ball was edged by Anil’s bat and went for a boundary in the third over.
The main bowler of the Dutch team, Palvan Mirken, started Rohit with a yorker in the sixth over. On the second ball, Rohit hit a beautiful boundary at the corner. After that, Rohit could not score runs in four more balls.
Nepali batter played 27 dots out of 36 balls of power play. Nepal was 29-2 in 6 overs. The Nepalese batsman scored 24 runs in that run with 5 fours and one leg bye. In the power play, the Nepalese batsmen scored only five runs apart from boundaries.
When the dot and poor performance in the power play increased the pressure on the Nepalese batters, the Netherlands turned the moments in their favor. Because when Nepal first came to bat, the goal was to prepare a strong total. However, the beginning was not like that. This increased the pressure on Rohit and Anil in the pavilion, dug out and crease.
Because of that, Anil played a sweep shot to Tim Pringle in the fourth ball of the eighth over. But after taking a top edge, he was easily caught out at deep backward square leg for 11 runs. At that time, Nepal was 40-3 in 7.4 overs.
Now Nepal needed a good partnership to get back into the game. Kushal Malla came to the aggressive batter’s crease. A good partnership was expected between Rohit and Kushal.
Kushal Malla hit Mirken at long-off on the first ball of the tenth over. But in the tune of playing a big shot in the fourth ball, when Kushal was caught at mid-off for 9 runs, Nepal reached 52-4.
Hope and trust of Nepal was now in Dipendra Singh Airi. However, Nepal reached 53-5 in 10.4 overs after Dipendra was caught for 1 run at first slip after being edged by Bass de Liday.
Nepal could not add any runs after losing one wicket in the 11th over. In the 12th over, four dots were played while adding three runs. As the main batsman Dipendra could not run, Nepal was in more trouble.
Sompal Kami also departed in the 14th over. In the last ball of spinner Pringle’s 16th over, Rohit was easily caught out in the tune of playing a shot at cover, and Nepal found it difficult to score even 100 runs.
In the lower order, Karan scored 17 runs with 2 sixes and Gulshan Jha scored 100 runs by adding 14 runs. After Rohit’s 35 runs, Karan and Gulshan had the most runs.
Three players could not open their accounts. Four key batters failed to score runs in double figures.
Nepalese batsmen could not play openly against the Netherlands at any time. Boundaries put more pressure on the opposition. Any player should come out of pressure to perform at his best. T20 cricket is aggressive. For that you have to play openly
A solid partnership is needed to reach a strong total. However, the batters of Nepal could not make a good partnership. The 25 runs added by Rohit and Anil for the third wicket in 27 balls was the biggest partnership of Nepal’s innings against the Netherlands. After that, Karan and Gulshan shared 22 runs in 17 balls for the eighth wicket.
Hoping for a comeback
Out of 116 balls played by the Nepali batter, 65 dots were played. Even if a single run was added only in half of that dot, the result could have been in favor of Nepal.
As a player, even if the team has 10/20 runs, they will fight for it. It does not determine how many goals we have given. “How to win the second inning after losing the first inning was a challenge,” said Sompal.
To that, he added, ‘We did well in the bowling unit. Could have done better. When the target was small, we could not try anything else. Hopefully we will make a good comeback in the next game.’
In bowling, Sompal made a significant success by getting the aggressive opener Michael Levitt caught by Dipendra for 1 run in the second ball of the second over. After that, Max O’Dowd and Bikramjit Singh shared 40 runs and took the game away from Nepal.
On the fourth ball of Abhinash’s eighth over, Sompal dropped Vikram Singh’s catch at deep mid-wicket for 19 runs. The catch was not very heavy. However, in the next over, Dipendra sent him back to the pavilion by trapping him lbw for 22 runs.
When the Netherlands needed 18 runs off 17 balls, Rohit left Max O’Dowd caught for 40 runs. But at that time the game had gone out of Nepal’s hands. Sompal says that it takes 1,000 catches in practice to catch one catch in a game.
Poor performance while batting first
Nepal usually performs poorly when batting first. In the semi-final match of the ACC Premier Cup held in Oman last April, Nepal scored 119 runs by batting first against the UAE and lost the Asia Cup by losing by 6 wickets. This is just an example.
Nepal bats better when chasing the target. In 2023, Nepal batted in the second innings when they won the ACC Premier Cup title and played in the Asia Cup and when they defeated UAE in the semi-finals of the World Cup Qualifier Asia.
Sompal says that the Dutch bowler has done well. ‘In the beginning, when there is no run. The batter did not play openly. A batsman gets confidence when he gets boundaries and runs. Although some of our batsmen played well, they also bowled very well,’ Sompal said about the poor performance while batting first.
Nepalese batsmen could not play openly against the Netherlands at any time. Boundaries put more pressure on the opposition. Any player should come out of pressure to perform at his best. T20 cricket is aggressive. For that, you have to play openly.
Nepal has not been able to play openly
Apart from Sagar and Abhinash, everyone else bats well in Nepal’s playing 11. The main reason for batting up to number 9 is so that the middle order and lower order batsmen perform better when they get off to a bad start.
In order to perform well in the World Cup, Nepal must first open the batsmen and the middle order and lower order players also need to take responsibility in the game. The top order should have a dependent ending.
Cricket analyst Ravi Timilsina says about Nepali batters not being able to play openly, ‘It was difficult to predict how the new pitch would behave. The rain at night and in the morning helped the Dutch bowlers even more.’ All the batters of Nepal played in the World Cup for the first time. Ravi says that it can also be a pressure.
In this same Grand Prairie Stadium, the US achieved the target of 195 runs given by Canada on Sunday, losing 3 wickets in 17.4 overs. So the batting aid pitch was estimated.
On the day before the match, how important is the toss according to the conditions, Nepal’s captain Rohit Paudel’s answer was, ‘The match is in the afternoon. I think the toss doesn’t matter that much. If we play better cricket than toss, we can win.’
But due to rain, the pitch could not be as expected. The result was decisive.
Upcoming Games
Nepal, who are in Group ‘D’, will play Sri Lanka on June 12 in Florida.
Then Nepal will go to the West Indies. They will play South Africa on June 15 and Bangladesh on June 17.
Sri Lanka lost the first match against South Africa by 6 wickets. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 77 runs in that match.
Nepal has nothing to lose. Players will play to make a name in World Cup cricket. We can still make Bangladesh and Sri Lanka results in our favour. The game against Sri Lanka will be important. That’s why we should pay attention to that game”, said cricket analyst Ravi Timilsina.
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