Rohit Sharma’s pinch hitting skills helped India to win the match by 10 wickets. Nepal scored 230/10 in 48.2 overs, but due to rain obstruction the new target was set at 145 runs in 23 overs. India chased down the target easily in 20.1 overs and scored 147 runs without losing any wickets.
This was India’s 2nd match of the group, their first game unfortunately as rain spoiled the India-Pakistan match. Both of them shared 1 point each. Nepal already lost the inaugural Asia Cup match against Pakistan where Babar Azam showed full domination in that match.
Rohit Sharma after winning the toss invited Nepal to bat first as he wanted to test their bowling line up.
Nepal started pretty well as they put 65 runs for the 1st wicket. Both Kushal Bhurtel (38 runs) and Aasif Sheikh (58 runs) getting a good hold after being dropped in the first 5 overs. Bhurtel opted the destructive approach as he took 25 balls to get there while Sheikh opted the defensive approach and he took 97 balls to get there.
After that they suddenly started losing wickets and were 144-6 at one time. Sompal Kami (48 runs) and Dipendra Singh (29 runs) stabilized later on. Due to Kami’s brave approach they got par 200 runs and finally they got all out and posted 230 runs in 48.2 overs.
Indians were looking sloppy in the fielding department and dropped 4 easy catches. After that Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Siraj grabbed 3 wickets. Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur get 1 wicket each.
India from the start showed a destructive approach. Skipper Rohit Sharma (74 runs) and Shubman Gill (67 runs) started hitting from the starting. Rohit was seen struggling in the first over but when the match resumed after the rain he was looking in a different role and taking the bowlers straightaway. He hit 6 fours and 5 sixes to his innings whereas Gill hit 8 fours and a six. Gill again showed his great hands with the bat and provided an equal winning contribution to the team.
With this win India have 3 points in group and they reached the Super Four stage whereas after losing the match Nepal is now out of the tournament.
Rohit Sharma, India Captain and Player of the Match
“Not really, some nerves to start with but once I got my eye in I wanted to get the team home. That was not intentional, I wanted to chip it over square leg but the bats these days are so good. When we came here we knew that our World Cup 15 was going to be like the Asia Cup was not going to give us a picture because it was only two games.
But luckily we got to bat in the first game and bowl in this game, that made it a complete game for us. Still have a lot of work to do. Lot of guys are coming back from injuries and they need time to get back into the groove. Hardik and Ishan were very good in the last game to get us to that score. The bowling was okay but the fielding was bad, we need to improve on that.”
Rohit Paudel, Nepal Captain
“The openers did a good job for us. The middle order could have done better, we were 30 runs short and if the middle order had done well then we could have reached 260-270. Our lower order has been doing a great job and contributing in the last 4-5 months. The conditions were really hard but our bowlers bowled well and the ball was not gripping.”