West Indies A posted a mammoth target of 228 runs on the back of a brilliant century from their opening batsman Johnson Charles, helping the visitors to bag a comfortable win against the home side.
Nepal was bundled out for just 151 in 19.2 overs, falling 76 runs short. Nepal rested their in form Skipper, resulting in star all-rounder Dipendra Singh Airee captaining the home side.
West Indies A won the toss and decided to bat first for the second time in a row. The tourists lost their first wicket in the form of a run-out, when the Windies vice-captain Alick Athanaze (17) was caught in a mix-up with his partner Charles.
Star performer Charles and Andre Fletcher shared a brilliant 145-run partnership for the second wicket, the former scoring a 61-ball 119 and the latter contributing 53 off 33.
Sagar Dhakal dismissed the dangerous-looking Fletcher in the 15th over when he tried to smack him out of the park, but was caught at long-on. West Indian star all-rounder Fabian Allen, playing his first game, scored a quick-fire 19 from 9 balls. Another all-rounder, Keemo Paul, scored an unbeaten 13 runs to finish the innings with 227.
Outside of Gulshan Jha, Nepal were expensive. Jha conceded just 24 runs in his quota of four overs, with every other bowler going at over 10. Only two bowlers, Karan KC and Sagar Dhakal, picked up a wicket.
In reply, Nepali batters never made an impact in today’s innings despite a 36-run stand for the first wicket. The hosts, who were looking to experiment before picking their final squad for the T20 World Cup, kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Wicket-keeper batter Binod Bhandari was the first to be dismissed (19 runs off 15 balls). Anil Sah smashed two easy-looking sixes but mistimed his shot when he tried to go for an inside-out shot. Another opening batsman, Lokesh Bam, struggled throughout his stay before he got bowled on 28.
West Indies A spinners got a stranglehold of the Nepali top and middle order as they never allowed them to build a partnership. Aarif Sheikh scored just three runs whereas Kushal Malla scored an 11-ball 20. Similarly, Gulshan Jha, Bibek Yadav, and Dipendra Singh Airee all three could not get a double-digit score. Karan KC provided a few fireworks down the order with his bat, scoring 28 runs off 17 balls. Eventually, it was the Windies pacers that wrapped up Nepal’s innings with the last two wickets.
West Indies A outplayed Nepal’s experimental XI in all three departments. Nepal rested six of their prominent players from their regular XI to test their bench strength, though Nepal head coach Monty Desai has hinted that the will come up with their best XI in their next two meetings.
Their were little surprises meanwhile in the squad selection put forward for the T20 World Cup in the USA and the Caribbean.
Sompal Kami is the only player from Nepal’s debut 2014 campaign in the squad for the 2024 tournament.
Nepal squad: Rohit Paudel (c), Aasif Sheikh, Anil Kumar Sah, Kushal Bhurtel, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Lalit Rajbanshi, Karan KC, Gulshan Jha, Sompal Kami, Pratis GC, Sundeep Jora, Abinash Bohara, Sagar Dhakal, Kamal Singh Airee Rohit Paudel (c), Aasif Sheikh, Anil Kumar Sah, Kushal Bhurtel, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Lalit Rajbanshi, Karan KC, Gulshan Jha, Sompal Kami, Pratis GC, Sundeep Jora, Abinash Bohara, Sagar Dhakal, Kamal Singh Airee
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