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Nepal’s fans in Kingstown were devastated when their team lost to South Africa in a thrilling match by only one run.
Both players and fans were in tears as a result of Nepal’s elimination from the T20 World Cup 2024 Super Eight round. With four victories in a row, South Africa swept the group stage thanks to Tabraiz Shamsi’s 4 for 19, which pulled them back with an impressive 18th over.
But the game appeared to be Nepal’s to lose for a very long time. Even on a challenging, shifting surface, their spinners had created a web to restrict South Africa to a poor 115 for 7, and they had then reduced the equation to the necessary 25 with the bat off 30 balls, with seven wickets in hand.
South Africa, still smarting from their previous tournament experiences, started the match a little too cautiously and, as a result, batted conservatively when the circumstances were ideal for batting.
South Africa was guilty of waiting for loose deliveries rather than forcing the bowlers off their lines early on, even if their 38 for 1 in the powerplay was their greatest score of the competition. As for Nepal, they never looked back once the spinners took hold and seldom deviated from their lines and lengths.
The first ball from Sandeep Lamichhane gripped and spun past Reeza Hendricks’ defence at 6.2 degrees, and that set the tone for South Africa, who rarely looked comfortable against the turning ball after that. In Nepal’s first encounter outside of the United States, Lamichhane’s probing spell yielded just 18 runs in his opening outing of the tournament, even though he would end up wicketless. However, Nepal had enough spin overs to take advantage of the conditions thanks to the bowling of Dipendra Singh Airee (3 for 21) and Kushal Bhurtel (4 for 19), who combined to take all seven South African wickets.
Nepal bowled 14 overs of spin, including the last over of the innings, in total. After giving up just 57 runs in the first 10 overs, Nepal had only given up 58 runs for six wickets at that point until Bhurtel claimed two wickets for nine runs.
Nepal bowled 14 overs of spin, including the last over of the innings, in total. After giving up just 57 runs in the first 10 overs, Nepal had only given up 58 runs for six wickets at that point until Bhurtel claimed two wickets for nine runs.
He unsettled Bhurtel and Rohit Paudel’s stumps in his opening over alone, igniting South Africa’s comeback. Following Shamsi’s subsequent over, Anil Sah and Aasif both attempted to reconstruct. After two boundaries from Anrich Nortje increased their rate and a six from Shamsi gave them a real chance to win, Sah was the first to up the ante. Sheikh came on in the next over, taking Rabada for six and four before the two connected for fifty off of just 36 deliveries.
Because South Africa only had one front-line spinner in the XI, they had to time Shamsi’s comeback exactly so. The Sah-Sheikh stand had been broken by Aiden Markram’s intermittent pauses, but Airee was adamant about sticking with the predetermined Sheikh.
But Shamsi now appears. Quinton de Kock received a feather touch on Airee’s attempted pull after his third delivery of the eighteenth turned down the leg side. The touch was so little that Airee looked back, believing he had not touched anything. Then, with his last delivery, Shamsi got the big fish, ripping one past Aasif’s bat and pad and into the stumps with a clatter.
In the last over, Nortje provided support for Shamsi by bowling four consecutive dots, one of which removed the top of Kushal Malla’s middle stump. Nepal needed to score eighteen points, meaning they needed to score at least one major goal before it was too late.
The penultimate over saw Kami unleash a devastating 105-meter pull that sent the ball flying over the bleachers, cutting the deficit to eight.
When the adolescent Jha got a boundary over cover to make it four runs off three balls, the Nepal fans stood up, with their phones out, to photograph a potentially historic event.
Nepal demonstrated perfect comprehension of the brief with a hard-run two off the next delivery, but two beautifully timed slower bouncers by Baartman off the last two deliveries proved too brilliant to be ignored.
A last-ball bye might have resulted in a Super Over, but Heinrich Klaasen, who was hiding close to the stumps, caught the ball as it deflected off Jha and flipped it to the non-striker’s end. Nepal was out and Jha was short.