Follow UsThe Nepal senior men’s side has got a knack of playing one thrilling game after another, and the pattern has continued in the T20I tri-series against Scotland and the Netherlands, being played in Glasgow, Scotland.
In the second match of the series, on June 16, Nepal had to play as many as three Super Overs against the Netherlands to complete the game that the Dutch eventually won. Now, they extended a low-scoring thriller till the penultimate delivery against Scotland, where only 98 runs were needed to win.
If not for leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane’s 4/11 in the first innings and the crucial single he took on the penultimate ball with the scores tied and only two wickets left, Nepal would have faced the possibility of playing four Super Overs in two days. However, sanity prevailed.
Earlier, Lamichhane, along with Karan KC (2/20) and Deepinder Singh Airee (2/24) restricted the Scottish batters to just 97 as no batter apart from Michael Leask seemed to get bat on ball with confidence.
In reply, Nepal kept losing wickets at regular intervals, even as opener Kushal Bhurtel held the innings together from one end until the 13th over when he got out for 30 off 35 deliveries. The fall of wickets continued, and ultimately it came down to Karan and Lamichhane to get the job done with only two wickets left.
Brief Scores: Nepal 98/8 in 19.5 overs (Bhurtel 30; Sharfi 2/13, Leask 2/21) defeated Scotland 97 in 19.4 overs (Leask 46; Lamichhane 4/11, Karan KC 2/20) by 2 wickets