Ireland won the match by 21 runs after completely devastating the middle order and lower orrder batter to register their first win.
Nepal won the toss and elected to bowl first in 1st Unofficial T20 match that was rescheduled to 29 March after the match was called off on 28 March due to wet out-field.
1st Inning
Ross Adair and Peter Moor came out to open for Ireland Wolves. Kamal Singh Airee comes up with the new ball and strikes early dismissing Ross Adair. Ross Adair departed scoring just 2 for Ireland Wolves. Cade Carmichael came at No 3 for Ireland. Cade Carmichael and Peter Moor well stabilized the inning and by the end of the first power play Ireland Wolves were 50/1.
Sagar Dhakal dismantled the partnership between two set batters and dismissed Cade Carmichael for 38 runs in 29 deliveries with an LBW. Ireland Wolves were 90/2 after 10 over. In just the next over Aarif Sheikh bowled out Peter Moor in the last ball of the 11th over. Peter Moor departed missing his half-century by just 1 run.
Neil Rock and Stephen Dohey were two new men in the crease after the departure of two set batters within 1 over Neil Rock and Stephen Doheny stabilized and started running the scoreboard for Ireland. A quick Fiery knock of Doheny’s 34 runs in 16 balls came to an end as Kamal Singh Airee trapped the Doheny and Ireland was reduced to 149/4.
Gareth Delany came to bat at No 6 and scored unbeaten 30 (14) at the death overs. Gavin Hoey added 17 runs playing just 5 balls and posted a mammoth total of 222 runs losing just 5 wickets against Nepal.
The Run Chase
Lokesh Bam and Skipper Binod Bhandari came to open the inning for Nepal. Both the openers started pretty decent for the side developing a partnership in the power play. Nepal lost their first wicket in the last ball 6th over. Bhandari departed scoring just 16 runs in 14 deliveries. Nepal was 43/1 at the end of 6 over.
Dev Khanal who had represented Nepal as U-19 Captain in the U-19 ODI World Cup came to bat at No 3 adding nothing on the scoreboard registering a golden duck in his name. Arjun Gharti came at No 4 to bat for Nepal. Arjun Gharti struggled early to score runs and departed for just 3 runs.
Lokesh Bahadur Bam was looking strong and well-set despite wickets falling from another end. Aarif Sheikh entered the crease at No 5 to build the most needed partnership with Lokesh Bam. Lokesh Bam and Aarif Sheikh played brilliantly and started smashing Ireland’s bowler shifting the gear up. Ireland’s bowling attack was completely devastated by the two set batters.
Nepal was moving so closer to the target. Lokesh Bam completed his maiden Century in just 52 balls. Lokesh Bam departed before leading his side off the mark scoring 106 runs in 56 balls with 9 fours and 8 sixes.
Nepal needed 33 runs in the last 24 balls but Nepal’s middle order and lower order completely collapsed from 189/4 to 201/10 None of the batters apart from Lokesh Bam, Sheikh, and Bhandari reached to double-digit score. The Nepali team got all out for 201 runs. As a batting collapse suffered by Nepal, Ireland pulled the match from the jaws of defeat.
In the end, Nepal lost the match by 21 runs and Ireland Wolves registered 1st win in the unofficial T20 match against Nepal A side.
Here are some of the Award players received postmatch.
- Degree Most Valuable Player of the Match : Matthew Humphreys
- Valley Express Player of The Match: Lokesh Bam
Ireland wolves and Nepal will be seen in action on March 30 at their 2nd T20 match at TU international ground kirtipur at 1:00 Nepali time.