'It felt like a home ground': Nepal pacer reflects after narrow loss to England

Mumbai: After Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Nepal seems to be the latest South Asian country bitten by the cricket bug.

Matching two-time world champions England shot for shot and ball for ball, Nepal came just four runs short while chasing 185 on Sunday in their T20 World Cup opener against England at the Wankhede Stadium.



In fact, they were always in the hunt till the very last ball, with skipper Dipendra Singh Airee (44), Rohit Paudel (39), Bam (39) and Kushal Bhurtel (29) going hammer and tongs on a pitch that India’s batters, minus skipper Suryakumar Yadav, had found tricky the night before.

Relishing Nepal’s laudable show at the Wankhede was their former head coach (from 2023 to Feb 2025 — a phase in which they qualified for the Asia Cup that year and the 2024 T20 World Cup), Monty Desai, who will follow his ‘boys’ for all their T20 World Cup matches in Mumbai.

Desai, also the former batting coach of West Indies, has a fair idea about the emerging talent in Nepal cricket, which he feels needs “well-designed programmes and better infrastructure.”

“Nepal has a lot of raw talent that needs polishing through well-designed programmes and better infrastructure. Not many would have expected Nepal to put up such a batting show against a formidable side like England yesterday. But these are Asian conditions, and Nepali batters play spin very well. From a batter’s perspective, it seems they’ve also worked hard to compete against bowlers with significantly higher pace,” Desai told TOI.

One thing impressive about Nepal’s spirited chase was their batsmen’s ability to launch the big hits against England’s world-class bowlers with ridiculous ease. “They may not always look traditionally attractive on the eye, with classical cover drives as an example, but they are effective — they know when to find boundaries and clear the ropes. There is raw power and belief in this group. What they need is constant exposure, something they’ve been able to achieve consistently over the last three years, including through hard-fought World Cup qualification campaigns,” Desai explained.

Not only was their performance, which gave England a mighty scare, extraordinary, their numerous fans, who have arrived in Mumbai to cheer for their team from all over the world and not just Kathmandu, have added a refreshingly new colour and flair to the tournament.

The 17,000-strong crowd at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday was dominated by their fans, clad in blue jerseys with a dash of red. Hailing their fans who backed their team to get over the line, seamer Nandan Yadav, who bowled impressively to take two for 25, said, “That’s the love of our crowd. They always support us. Wherever we go, it feels like a home ground for us. I’m really thankful for that — to all the supporters. I want to say sorry for the result, but we will improve. The crowd is amazing. They love cricket and the atmosphere,” he said.

An associate nation, Nepal is clearly a rising star in world cricket. With the desire of playing Test cricket, CAN have also launched a three-day domestic tournament and have asked the ICC to give it first-class status. However, Nandan admitted that their domestic red-ball setup has to improve. “We need to improve our domestic circuit, red-ball cricket and everything which we don’t have right now. So it’s a dream for me as well to become a Test nation. But yeah, it’s a tough job to do now, I think,” Nandan said.

Nandan said the fact that Nepal gave a reputed side like England a run for their money is a matter of pride and that the side will improve from this experience. “There is regret because we came very close and couldn’t get over the line, but at the same time there is pride because we are competing against very strong teams like England. Being that close shows we are improving, so overall it’s a mix of pride and regret,” he said.

Nepal were left regretting the fact that they conceded 45 runs in the last three overs, as Will Jacks (39 off 21 balls) went berserk. Nandan confessed Nepal need to improve their death-overs bowling. “For me personally, there is a lot of talk about my wide balls, so that’s something I need to work on. As a bowling unit, we need to focus more on death overs,” he said.

Nandan said that despite the defeat, Nepal were still hopeful of a Super 8 berth. “We’ve only played our first game so far and it was very close, so we are not really behind in the Super 8 race. I think we still have a good chance of making the Super 8.”


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