Kathmandu, Feb. 18:The Nepali men’s cricket team did not fail thousands of fans who arrived at the TU International Cricket Ground on Saturday to witness Nepal’s glorious win against the mighty Dutch side. 

Millions of Nepali cricket fans were worried about the match result since Nepal lost bitterly to Namibia, comparably a weaker team than the Netherlands, in the first match of the inaugural ICC CWC League 2 (2024-27) tri-series on February 15.

However, Nepal dominated the Netherlands, a team that defeated South Africa and Bangladesh in the 2023 World Cup, in the second match of the tri-series as the host registered a win by nine wickets on home soil. The Dutch side got bundled at the end of the 39th over and posted a paltry target of 138 runs. Losing only one wicket, Nepal chased the target with 208 balls to spare.

137 all out

Sompal Kami delivered in the first over with the new ball as Nepal won the toss and elected to field. Opener Michael Levitt was caught by Dev Khanal in the third ball of the first over for a duck. While a wicket fell in the first over, the Netherlands still had enough powerful hitters and technical batsmen remaining. Nevertheless, as Max O’Dowd (10 off 21) got run out over a misunderstanding with Sybrand Engelbrecht in the sixth over, Nepal started pushing forward.

Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi opened his account as Sybrand (23 off 35) got caught by Anil Kumar Sah in the 16th over. Moreover, as Lalit bowled dangerous Bas de Leede (24 off 44), ICC Men’s Associate Cricketer of the Year 2023, in the 20th over, Nepal saw a chance to restrict the Netherlands to a low total; and Kushal Bhurtel claimed it.

With Noah Croes getting run out in a silly way in the 26th over as the fifth wicket, captain Scott Edwards was all that stood between Nepal’s chance to disallow the Netherlands from posting a decent total. 

Edwards lacked a decent batsman to partner with after the team lost five of its top batsmen. Bhurtel, attacking lower-order batsmen, sent Wesley Barresi (0 off 2) and Aryan Dutt (10 off 20) back to the pavilion in the 27th and 33rd overs respectively. Bhurtel went on to take two more wickets as Edwards (33 off 49) was struck leg-before in the 35th over and Vivian Kingma (2 off 17) got stumped in the 39th over as the final wicket leaving the Netherlands at 137 runs. Kyle Klien stayed not 

out at 11 off 16.

While Bhurtel took four wickets, Lalit bagged two and Sompal claimed one. Bowling only one over, captain Rohit Kumar Paudel bowled out Shariz Ahmed in the 28th over.

Boundaries rain at TU

Getting caught for a golden duck against Namibia, Kushal Bhurtel safely opened his account with a single in the first ball against the Netherlands. Aasif Sheikh, on the other hand, defended the next four balls before hitting a risky four in the final ball of the first over by pacer Kingma.

And the second over of the match, Bhurtel raised the roof at the TU International Cricket Ground as he hit two sixes and a four in the first four balls by spinner Dutt. Rotating the strike with a single, Aasif ended Dutt’s over with a four and the duo added 21 runs in the second over of the chase.

As Kingma returned in the third over, Bhurtel welcomed him with a six. Hitting the fourth ball for a four, Bhurtel got caught in the fifth ball as he could not connect the ball for a six properly. Bhurtel departed adding 28 runs off only 11 deliveries. For his aggressive start for the team with the bat and four wickets with the ball, Bhurtel was adjudged the player of the match.

Aasif, who was dropped at 19, then partnered with power hitter Anil Kumar Sah and chased the target in 15.2 overs. Aasif and Anil both registered their half-centuries in a dominant batting display. Anil finished the game with a four, which was the 24th boundary for Nepal. Anil stayed not out at 57 off 36 (6 fours, 4 sixes) and Aasif at 54 off 45 (2 fours, 3 sixes).

Compared to the squad against Namibia, Nepal included Dipendra Singh Airee and Dev Khanal against the Netherlands replacing Karan KC and Pawan Sarraf. Two players – Kyle Klein and Michael Levitt also debuted for the Netherlands in men’s ODIs against Nepal. 

While Namibia faces the Dutch side on Monday, Nepal will play its second match of the tri-series against Namibia and the Netherlands on February 21 and 25 respectively.