Himal Press 
Nepal: 106/10 in 19.2 over | Netherlands: 109/4 in 18.2 overs
Netherlands win by six wickets with eight balls to spare.
KATHMANDU: Nepal suffered a six-wicket defeat against the Netherlands in its first match of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at the Grand Pierie Stadium in Dallas on Tuesday.
Invited to bat first after losing the toss after early-morning rain, Nepal could add only 106 runs in 19.2 overs. The Netherlands overcame the target losing six wickets with eight balls remaining.
Nepal made a poor start with the bat in front of the vocal fans who painted the Grand Pierie Stadium red and blue. Aasif Shiekh (7) got a thick edge and was caught in the last ball of the second over with just 10 runs on the board. Khushal Bhurtel (4) departed in the first ball of the fourth over with the score at 15. Ail Sah also fell scoring 11 off 12 balls in the eighth over.
Captain Rohit Paudel offered resistance but he lost support on the other end. Paudel scored 35 off 37 balls in the last ball of the 16th over. Gulsan Jha and Karan KC scored 14 and 17, respectively, to take Nepal’s score past 100. Kushal Malla scored 9 and Dipendra Singh Airee was out scoring one run after facing six balls.
Tim Pringle and Logan van Beek took three wickets each for the Netherlands, while Paul van Meekeren and Bas de Leede had two wickets each to their names.
Although Nepal got the Netherlands opener Michael Levitt for just one run in the second over, Max O’Dowd scored an unbeaten half-century to deny Nepal any chance of coming back into the game. He scored 54 off 48 balls and found support from Vikramjit Singh (22) and Sybrand Engelbrecht (14).
Despite a low score to defend, Nepal stifled the Netherlands batter and took the game to the 19th over. Paudel, Sompal Kami and Aasif Sheikh all dropped catches. Paudel missed O’Dowd’s catch in the 18th over bowled by Sompal Kami. The game could have turned any way had the catch been taken.
O’Dowd scored 15 runs in the 19th over to seal victory for the Netherlands.
What the Nepali captain said?
The conditions while batting were really challenging. Netherlands bowled really well. We could have stretched it a little more and had more partnerships through the middle. I was moving laterally and using the crease to upset the bowlers. After the start I got I could have done better.
As a bowling unit we did really well. The last catch that I dropped was very well and we didn’t catch well. I want to thank the crowd. It felt like we were playing in Nepal. We are really grateful to them.
What the Netherlands captain said?
Our bowlers were awesome up top. We got two or three wickets in the powerplay. All five of our bowlers were brilliant. Ideally we would have got the runs a little quicker, but it was great the way Max batted, and Bassie finished it off well. We’ve got to play consistent cricket right way through this tournament.
