Records falter as Nepal demolish Mongolia

KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 27

Nepal recorded a number of world records as they made a winning start in the T20 cricket tournament under the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou today.

Nepal demolished Mongolia by 273 runs in the Group A match. Batting first, Nepal accumulated a record score of 314-3 in their allotted 20 overs riding on a century from Kushal Malla and half centuries from skipper Rohit Paudel and Dipendra Singh Airee. In reply, Mongolia were packed for a paltry 41 runs in 13.1 overs in their first-ever international cricket match.

Malla scored the fastest century in T20I, while Airee slammed the fastest half century in the shortest version of the game. Malla reached the three figures in just 34 balls, beating the previous best of 35-ball century scored by India skipper Rohit Sharma (vs Sri Lanka, 2017), South Africa's David Miller (vs Bangladesh, 2017) and Czech Republic's Sudesh Wickramasekara (vs Turkey, 2019). Malla went on to score an unbeaten 137 runs and his 50-ball knock was laced with eight sixes and 12 boundaries.

Airee struck five sixes in an over on his way to reaching the fifty from just nine balls for his seventh half century in T20Is.

Yuvraj Singh of India held the record of 12-ball half century scored against England in the T20 World Cup in 2007. Airee hit a total of eight sixes in his unbeaten 10-ball 52 at the strike rate of 520 - which is also a world record in T20.

Malla and Paudel shared a world record third-wicket partnership of 193 runs, beating the previous mark of 184 runs between New Zealand's Deven Conway and Glenn Phillips against the West Indies.

The partnership between Malla and Paudel is the eighth biggest in T20 cricket. The winning margin is another world record for Nepal. The 273-run victory is the biggest in T20Is that beat the previous best of 157-run margin held by Czech Republic against Turkey.

The Nepali team also hit the most number of sixes in an innings - 26. Malla struck 12, while Airee and Paudel hit eight and six sixes as Nepal beat the previous mark of 22 shared by Afghanistan and the West Indies. Nepal became the first men's team to score 300- plus score in T20Is. The previous best total of 278 runs was scored by Afghanistan against Ireland in 2019.

Nepal also scored the most number of runs in the last 10 overs - 192, while they recorded at an average of 15.7 runs per over beating the previous best net run rate of 13.9 held jointly by Afghanistan and Czech Republic. Nepal became top team to score most number of runs in the last five overs scoring 89 runs beating the record of 76 runs held by England and New Zealand.

Nepal made a mediocre start with openers Kushal Bhurtel (19) and Aasif Sheikh (16) putting up 42 runs inside five overs after being sent in by Mongolia skipper Luvsanzundui Erdenebulgan. Mongolia reduced Nepal to 66-2 in 7.2 overs before Malla and Paudel launched the attack sharing a record partnership of 193 runs for the third wicket. After Paudel was dismissed for a quick fire 61 off just 27 balls that included two fours and six sixes in the first ball of the penultimate over, Airee dominated the 55-run partnership for the unbroken fourth wicket.

Airee got going from the first ball he faced and struck five straight sixes off Mungun Altankhuyag in the 19th over. After Malla took a single in the first ball of the last over bowled by Luvsanzundui Erdenebulgan, Airee scored six, two, six and six in the next four balls to bring up his fifty in just nine balls and took two runs in the final ball.

Luvsanzundui Erdenebulgan, Mungun Altankhuyag and Davaasuren Jamyansuren took one wicket each for Mongolia, who were folded for a paltry 41 runs in reply. Davaasuren Jamyansuren (10) was the lone batter to reach double figure mark. The batters scored a total of 18 runs from the bat, while Mongolia got 23 runs in sundries - 5 leg byes, two no balls and 16 wides.

Nepal skipper Paudel used seven overs to bowl 13 overs and Gulsan Jha was the lone bowler to return empty handed as he was hit for 18 runs in three overs. Karan KC (2-1), Abinash Bohara (2-2) and Sandeep Lamichhane (2-7) shared six wickets among them, while Sompal Kami, Dipendra Singh and Kushal Bhurtel grabbed one wicket each.

Nepal will play against the Maldives in the second match on Sunday. Nepal are favoured to make it to the quarter-finals with two straight wins as the Maldives have sent a second-string side to China due to collision in the schedules.

Maldives are also slated to play in the T20 World Cup's Asia Region Qualifier.

In other sports, Nepal continued the dismal shows. Nepali athletes took part in swimming, boxing, women's 3X3 basketball, judo, taekwondo, wushu, squash and table tennis events on Wednesday, but none of them could leave their mark in the Asian sporting extravaganza.

Nepali boxing had high hopes on Sushma Tamang, who had won historic silver medal in the U-22 Asian Boxing Championship last year.

But she lost her first bout against Kazakhstan opponent Nazym Kyzaibay in the women's 50kg bout, while the 13th South Asian Games gold medallist Bhupendra Thapa also faced defeat in the Round of 16 bout against Chu En Lai of Chinese Taipei in the below-63kg weight category.