Before travelling to UAE, Nepali national team captain Paras Khadka told us “the UAE tour will be an unforgettable and historical one for Nepali cricket.” and as our captain Paras said Nepal not only created history in UAE tour, they managed to win both ODI and T-20 series in UAE. In past, we have seen many teams failed to win the ODI series for many years despite having an ODI status but Nepal who just got the ODI status last year from ICC has achieved the milestone of claiming the first ever ODI series win within a year.
This is the immense success of Nepali Cricket in the International Cricket and is just the beginning of the reign of Nepal in International Cricket. This is just the start of a long journey, this team needs to achieve more and more in the future. In a UAE tour, youth have performed exceptionally well, 2 young Nepali Batsmen created World records in the International cricket, and some senior players individually performed brilliantly and improved their worst form in UAE tour.
Out of four new faces in the national team, Sandeep Jhora, Avinash Bohara and Pawan Sarraf proved that they are the future of Nepali Cricket and are the horse of the long race. The young Rohit Kumar Poudel and Sandeep Jhora were the two name who successfully wrote their name on records of youngest player to score a half-century, in ODI and T-20 respectively in international cricket.
Sompal represented himself as number one young all-rounder in the series against UAE. He contributed in both ODI and t-20 series with his all-round performance. Sandeep Lamichane who has been the highlight of Nepali Cricket since last year and played different international franchise tournaments also had a great UAE tour, this time he didn’t only contributed with his spin but also contributed with his bat in the ODI series.
Avinash Bohra who also made the senior team debut on t-20 series was announced as the man of the t-2o series. His took the most(6 wickets) in 3-match t-20 series spending 72 runs.
Let’s have a quick look on the records made by the Nepali Players on UAE tour:
Rohit’s World Record inning:
In the second ODI match of Nepal tour of UAE, the 16-year-old Rohit Kumar Poudel broke the nearly 3-decade old record held by legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar for youngest player to reach the half-century mark in the international series. Rohit, who made a debut in last year’s Netherland tour played exceptionally well in the second ODI match against UAE. He surpassed the cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar’s record by just 67 days and scored his first senior team half-century in 16-years and 146 days.
for more details of this record follow this post
Captain Paras Khadka’s century:
Since joining the senior team 15 years ago, Captain Paras Khadka has been the one of Nepal's most consistent player and has been the winner of best Nepali sportsperson for the past 3 years. He never failed to impress us with his all-round performance in the pitch. In a historical series win over UAE, Paras once again looked strong in all 3 sectors (batting, bowling and fielding). While chasing a target of 255 successfully in the 3rd ODI, Nepali Captain Paras played an outstanding knock of 115 runs to become the first ever Nepali cricketer to score the century in ODI cricket. While Nepal playing their 6th ODI game after gaining the ODI status, Paras played the great knock of 115 runs with 15 fours and 1 six in 109 balls and helped to reach the target of 255 within 45 over. With that win, Nepal not only won the match but also claim the first ever ODI series. Captain Paras was awarded as a player of the series for his all-round performance in ODI series.
Kami’s 5 wickets:
For the past 2-3 years, Sompal has been trying to represent himself as one of Nepal’s best all-rounder. During the UAE tour, he again impressed us with his all-around performance. In a second ODI match, where Rohit Kumar Poudel became the all-time youngest player to score the half-century in ODI format, Sompal Kami and Sandeep Lamichane bowled really well to dismiss the UAE team inside 100 run mark. Out of UAE’s 10 wickets, the pair of Kami and Lamichane shared the 9 wickets. Sompal who took the first four wickets of UAE also took last wicket (Zahoor Khan’s) of UAE inning to complete not only his first but also Nepal’s first ever 5-wicket-haul in ODI cricket. While collapsing UAE’s inning, Sompal took 5 wickets in his 6.3 overs with 1 maiden and gave only 33 runs. Another Nepali 18-year-old star leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichane took 4 wickets in his 4 overs spell giving 24 runs.
Sandeep Jhora’s t-20 record:
Sandeep Jhora became the second Nepali on UAE tour to create the new World Record. Johra who made the senior-team debut on t-20 series against UAE scored the half-century on his debut match. His 53 runs in the first t-2o match of the series didn’t help Nepal to escape from defeat but with that half-century, he became the youngest player to score the half-century in t-20 format. He broke the Canadian cricketer Hiral Patel’s record and wrote his name on that record with the half-century at age of 17-year and 103 days old.
The contribution of Sandeep Lamichane:
Before the start of this series, the question raised on everyone’s mind was how this 18-year-old leg spinner will perform in this series after he gained a lot of experiences from different international franchise tournaments in 2018. Following all the records of Johara, Poudel, Kami and Khadka’s record Lamichane didn’t get enough credits for his contribution in this tour. Lamichane bowled brilliantly in UAE tour and didn’t fail to take a wicket in any match during the UAE tour. In 3 ODI matches, he took 7 wickets with the economy of 4.46 and in the t-20 series, he took 5 wickets in 3 matches with the economy of 6.7. He was the captain Khadka’s main weapon to hand the breakthrough for Nepal in almost every match. Despite being a Nepal’s number 11 batsmen, he scored 29 runs in 3 ODI matches. During the second ODI match against UAE, he became the first Nepali bowler to take 3-wickets in a single over.
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