Surprising performance of Nepal in HongKong 6s against elite teams

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Nov. 5: A young squad of Nepal delivered astounding performance against elite teams at the Hong Kong International Sixes 2024. Nepal defeated England and Australia in the group stage of the tournament to enter the quarter-finals as the group topper.

Nepal defeated England on November 1 and Australia on November 2. Led by Sundeep Jora as the captain, the squad defated England's team which had the likes of Ravi Bopara as the captain.

Nepal was given a target of 98 runs by England before the team was bundled out at 5.5 overs in the six-over game. Bopara and Samit Patel, with 49 and 39 runs respectively, were the highest run scorers for the British side. Pratish GC bagged three wickets while Narayan Joshi, Lokesh Bam and Bibek Yadav took one each. 

Chasing 98, Lokesh and Sundeep gave Nepal a blasting start. While Lokesh stayed not out at 20 off 11, Sundeep retired after scoring a fifty in just 12 deliveries. Rashid Khan then aided Lokesh with 21 off 5 to chase the target with 10 balls remaining.

Bopara, Jordan Thompson, Ed Barnard, Samit Patel and James Coles were wicketless against Nepal.

The next day, on November 2, Nepal faced Australia and won. Batting first, Nepal posted 111/2 in the first six overs as Sundeep scored another fifty, this time in 16 deliveries.

Opener Lokesh, Bibek and Rashid added 33 off 13, 12 off 4 and 12 off 2 to post the target of 112. Jack Wood bagged two wickets for Australia. Wood did his job with the bat as well with a score of 55 off 16, but other players could not add to it.

Pratish was again top-class with the ball as he took three wickets while Lokesh and Bibek took one each. England could only score 100 runs by the end of the six overs falling short by 11 runs against Nepal.

Entering the quarter final, Nepal then faced Sri Lanka. However, they lost to the South Asian country by 40 runs while failing to chase 124 runs. It was Sri Lanka who went on to win the tournament by defeating Pakistan in the final on November 3.

The loss in the quarter final led Nepal to the Plate category where they lost to the UAE by five wickets. The UAE chased Nepal's target of 95 runs with four balls remaining.

Nevertheless, Pratish was the second highest wicket taker of the tournament alongside Matthew Boast of South Africa. Pratish also had the second best bowling economy (13.86).