147/0 (20.1)
CRR : 7.29
230/10 (48.2)
CRR : 4.76
India won by 10 wickets (DLS METHOD)
Player of the Match
Player
74(59)
11:31 PM IST and Local Time: After a sloppy display on the field, India manage to thump Nepal through a class-display of batting. They win this last Group A game by 10 wickets on DLS and march onto the next stage in the tournament. Nepal have had their contributions for this mega event but won't have any further parts in Asia Cup 2023.
Rohit Sharma opted to bowl first this time after winning the toss citing the overhead conditions. India started off in an unusual way dropping three catches inside five overs, giving plenty of lives for the Nepali openers. Both Aasif Sheikh and Kushal Bhurtel made full use of these let offs and added 65 runs for the first wicket. When India were searching for something to happen, Shardul Thakur drew the first blood for India in the penultimate ball of the first Powerplay.
Ravindra Jadeja came in the attack and ran through the middle order and finished with figures of 10-0-40-3. Wickets fell at one end but Sheikh batted cautiously to bring his fifty up. He scored 58 off 97 balls in what was a slow innings against a top quality bowling attack. Kuldeep Yadav failed to scalp a wicket but bowled well, ending with figures of 10-2-34-0. Mohammed Siraj bowled well in his second spell and was breathing fire in that particular set of overs, picking a couple of wickets.
Gulshan Jha and Dipendra Singh Airee batted decently getting past their respective 20s. Sompal Kami came out of the box for India and he smashed a few lusty blows putting pressure on India. Kami added a 50-run partnership with Airee for the 7th wicket which was followed by a crucial stand with Sandeep Lamichhane of 34 runs. However wickets fell in a quick time following the dismissal of Kami (48 off 56) in the 48th over. Siraj (3/61) picked the final wicket of Nepal as India knocked them over for 230 runs.
There was a couple of rain breaks during the first innings as well but more of it came during the run chase. India were at 17/0 in 2.1 overs when the heavens opened up for a long time. Finally, the chase resumed but was reduced to a 23 overs contest with India needing 145 runs to win. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill batted through it and gave India a massive victory with 17 balls to spare. Both hit an array of strokes and completed their respective fifties. Rohit was unbeaten on 74 off 59 balls with 6 fours and 5 sixes, while Gill was unbeaten at 67 off 62 balls with 8 fours and one biggie.
Karan KC bowled a fantastic first over to captain Sharma and troubled him by taking the ball in and out. But for the rest of the chase, the Indian openers stamped their authority.
Stay tuned for the presentations!
Rohit Sharma opted to bowl first this time after winning the toss citing the overhead conditions. India started off in an unusual way dropping three catches inside five overs, giving plenty of lives for the Nepali openers. Both Aasif Sheikh and Kushal Bhurtel made full use of these let offs and added 65 runs for the first wicket. When India were searching for something to happen, Shardul Thakur drew the first blood for India in the penultimate ball of the first Powerplay.
Ravindra Jadeja came in the attack and ran through the middle order and finished with figures of 10-0-40-3. Wickets fell at one end but Sheikh batted cautiously to bring his fifty up. He scored 58 off 97 balls in what was a slow innings against a top quality bowling attack. Kuldeep Yadav failed to scalp a wicket but bowled well, ending with figures of 10-2-34-0. Mohammed Siraj bowled well in his second spell and was breathing fire in that particular set of overs, picking a couple of wickets.
Gulshan Jha and Dipendra Singh Airee batted decently getting past their respective 20s. Sompal Kami came out of the box for India and he smashed a few lusty blows putting pressure on India. Kami added a 50-run partnership with Airee for the 7th wicket which was followed by a crucial stand with Sandeep Lamichhane of 34 runs. However wickets fell in a quick time following the dismissal of Kami (48 off 56) in the 48th over. Siraj (3/61) picked the final wicket of Nepal as India knocked them over for 230 runs.
There was a couple of rain breaks during the first innings as well but more of it came during the run chase. India were at 17/0 in 2.1 overs when the heavens opened up for a long time. Finally, the chase resumed but was reduced to a 23 overs contest with India needing 145 runs to win. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill batted through it and gave India a massive victory with 17 balls to spare. Both hit an array of strokes and completed their respective fifties. Rohit was unbeaten on 74 off 59 balls with 6 fours and 5 sixes, while Gill was unbeaten at 67 off 62 balls with 8 fours and one biggie.
Karan KC bowled a fantastic first over to captain Sharma and troubled him by taking the ball in and out. But for the rest of the chase, the Indian openers stamped their authority.
Stay tuned for the presentations!
Shubman Gill (67* off 62): "Yeah, definitely, you know, quite disappointed with the way I got out the day before yesterday, but it was important for me to finish the game along with Rohit Bhaiya, and I think we did that. I mean, obviously, he [Rohit Sharma] is the kind of player who likes to take the bowlers on aerial. I'm the kind of who likes to hit more boundaries than aerial, so I think that combination works quite well for us.
[Speaking about Nepal bowling] I think they bowled very well with the new ball. They challenged us. They bowled really good areas with the new ball, and obviously, we knew once the ball gets wet with this outfield, it would get easier for the batsmen."
Rohit Paudel (Nepal Captain): "I think our openers did a very good job for us, and in the middle order we could have done better. So. I thought 30 runs were short. If we had done better within the middle order, I think we would have reached around 260 to 270. In the last four or five months. Our lower order is doing a great job, and they have been contributing to us for the last four or five months. So, yeah, we are very proud of them.
I think in this condition, it was really hard, but still, our bowlers bowled really well, I would say, because the ball was not gripping, because of dew, it was hard to bowl."
I think in this condition, it was really hard, but still, our bowlers bowled really well, I would say, because the ball was not gripping, because of dew, it was hard to bowl."
11:45 PM IST & Local Time: It's time for the post-match presentation.
Catch of the Match: Ishan Kishan.
Maximum Sixes of the Match: Rohit Sharma (5 sixes).
Player of the Match: Rohit Sharma.
Rohit Sharma (Player of the Match & India Captain): "Yeah, I mean, not really, honestly, to start with. There were some nerves around to start with, but once I got my eye in, I wanted to cash in and, get the team home.
[Speaking about his flick shot] That was unexpected. I just wanted to chip it over the short fine leg. There was no intention to hit all the way to deep backward square leg but luckily timed the ball really well, bats these days are so good.
Look, when we came here, in the back of our mind, we knew what our 15 is going to be like. There was one or two spots that we wanted to have a look at, but we were very clear in our mind that the Asia Cup is not going to give us the complete picture of what the squad would be like, because there were only two games that we had to play. So you can't really look too much into that two game and one being washed out. But luckily we got a bat in the first game and we bowled in this game. That was a complete game for us. But, yeah, a lot of things that we need to still understand what we need to do as a group. We didn't play our best cricket in both our games, but I'm sure we're getting there. A lot of the guys are just coming back after a long break. I can understand a little bit. Few guys are coming back after months of being out of the game, so that can happen.
But once we move ahead in the Super Fours, there's no room for complacency like that. We need to be on the money and we need to keep ticking those boxes, which I thought we did pretty all right in these two games that we played. In the first game under pressure, lost four wickets Hardik and Ishan batted brilliantly to get us to a good score. And then today with the ball, I thought we were okay, not great, but fielding was below par. That is something that we had to be really looking into, something that we cannot afford to do going into tournaments like World Cup and also Asia Cup. It's a big tournament, so a lot of things for us to look at. Hopefully moving ahead, we can look into all those things."
But once we move ahead in the Super Fours, there's no room for complacency like that. We need to be on the money and we need to keep ticking those boxes, which I thought we did pretty all right in these two games that we played. In the first game under pressure, lost four wickets Hardik and Ishan batted brilliantly to get us to a good score. And then today with the ball, I thought we were okay, not great, but fielding was below par. That is something that we had to be really looking into, something that we cannot afford to do going into tournaments like World Cup and also Asia Cup. It's a big tournament, so a lot of things for us to look at. Hopefully moving ahead, we can look into all those things."
India managed to defeat Nepal and was a crunching win in the end of it all. India join Pakistan in the Super Fours from Group A. Tomorrow again it's a big game and it's the final Group match. Sri Lanka take on Afghanistan at Lahore.
So we will wrap our coverage for the night. It's me AkshayaKrishna Polya signing off on behalf of my co-commentators Arijit Kundu and Deepak Prakash, who, alongside our scorer/analyst Zeeshan Naiyer brought you all the live-action of this contest. We will meet again in the next game. Until then, it's cheers!
So we will wrap our coverage for the night. It's me AkshayaKrishna Polya signing off on behalf of my co-commentators Arijit Kundu and Deepak Prakash, who, alongside our scorer/analyst Zeeshan Naiyer brought you all the live-action of this contest. We will meet again in the next game. Until then, it's cheers!