Mumbai, February 11 Despite a hard-fought effort, Nepal will aim to achieve a historic win and end their winless streak in the T20 World Cup when they face debutants Italy in a Group C match here on Thursday.
Having made their debut in the competition 12 years ago, Nepal recorded two wins in the 2014 edition when they defeated Hong Kong and Afghanistan, but the Himalayan nation has remained winless since.
Interestingly, Nepal have come agonizingly close to beating Test-playing nations on three occasions but have ultimately fallen short.
In 2024, they lost to South Africa by just one run and to Bangladesh by 21 runs.
However, the four-run defeat against England last Sunday at the Wankhede Stadium has put them in the spotlight and generated excitement around Nepalese cricketers.
They have shown tremendous resilience, having honed their skills in one of the toughest formats with limited exposure to international cricket.
Despite a 10-year gap in playing T20 World Cups, Nepal matched England—a two-time world champion—almost on every count on the field and displayed their resolve on the biggest platform.
Neither were they deterred by the grandeur of the stage or the weight of expectations. The 17,008 fans at the Wankhede Stadium cheered for the "Rhinos," which matched the decibel levels usually witnessed when the home team plays here.
Nepal has Kushal Bhurtel, an aggressive top-order batsman who can provide strong starts, while the formidable middle-order comprising Dipendra Singh Airee, captain Rohit Paudel, and Aarif Sheikh provides them with significant firepower.
Lokesh Bam threatened to cause a major upset against England with his aggressive stroke play, leaving batsmen like Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid stunned, while big-hitter Karan KC took a backseat.
However, there are some areas of concern that Nepal will want to address as they move forward.
They did not get enough boundaries in the middle overs against England in a challenging chase, and their running between the wickets also needs improvement.
To their credit, Nepal did not make too many errors with the ball for a large part of England's innings, but they ended up conceding too many runs in the death overs.
On the other hand, Italy will want to put behind their crushing 73-run defeat to Scotland in the tournament opener and start afresh.
Italy also had their captain Wayne Madsen dislocating his shoulder at the start of the game, and Harry Manenti is likely to lead the side.
Italy used seven different bowling options but failed to contain a side that did not have an ideal build-up to the tournament, and their response in chasing 208 was far from ideal.
Six of their batters fell for single digits, and three recorded ducks.
Ben Manenti's half-century and some big hits from Harry were the only bright spots for Italy, who will want to make all-round improvements in their remaining matches of the tournament.
Teams:
Nepal: Rohit Paudel (c), Aarif Sheikh, Aasif Sheikh (wk), Dipendra Singh Airee, Basir Ahamad, Kushal Bhurtel, Sundeep Jora, Lokesh Bam, Gulsan Jha, Karan KC, Sompal Kami, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sher Malla, Lalit Rajbanshi, Nandan Yadav.
Italy: Wayne Madsen (c), Marcus Campopiano, Gian-Piero Meade (wk), Anthony Mosca, Justin Mosca, Syed Naqvi, Harry Manenti, JJ Smuts, Grant Stewart, Ali Hasan, Thomas Draca, Jaspreet Singh, Crishan Kalugamage, Ben Manenti, Zain Ali.
Match starts at 3:00 pm IST.
