Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: Nepal has clinched the title of the ICC T20 World Cup Asia and East Asia Pacific Qualifier 2025. Nepal defeated Oman by 38 runs to lift the title.
In the decisive match held at the National Cricket Academy Ground, Muscat, Nepal won the toss and elected to bat first and scored 151 runs at the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs.
Kushal Bhurtel was the top scorer for Nepal with 69 runs off 51 balls with 7 fours and a six. Asif Sesh scored 24 runs off 20 balls with one six and 2 fours before being trapped LBW off Nadeem Khan. Gulshan Jha and Mohammad Adil Alam scored 18 and 16 runs respectively. Except for these four players, none of the other players could score in double digits.
Rohit Paudel was LBW for 1 off 2 balls while Dipendra Singh Airee was left LBW for 2 runs off 5 balls. Nandan Yadav and Kushal Malla made 9 and 7 runs respectively. Lokesh Bam got out on the first ball.
Chasing a target of 152 runs, Oman was forced to see skipper Jatinder Singh out of the field for a few runs. He was caught by vice-captain Dipendra Singh Airee off the bowling of Sompal Kami as he was not physically ready to take the run. He scored 14 runs off 11 balls with the help of 2 sixes.
Nadeem Khan took 4 wickets for Oman, while Sufiyan Mohammad and Jiten Ramanandi took 2 wickets each.
Binayak Shukla (32), Mohammad Nadeem (25), Jatinder Singh (14) and Aryan Bista (11) were the top scorers for Oman. Apart from these, none of the other players could score in double digits.
Gulshan Jha took 3 wickets, Sompal Kami took 2 wickets, Nandan Yadav took 2 wickets and Sandeep Lamichhane took 1 wicket.
In the 7th over of the match, Mohammad Nadeem and Anandilai were sent off the field. Skipper Rohit Paudel caught the ball from Nadeem while maintaining his balance when he was about to touch the ropes of the boundary of the field.
Both Nepal and Oman have secured their place in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be held in India and Sri Lanka in 2026.
Nepal will now play against Samoa in the last match of the Super Six on Friday.
Earlier, Nepal had defeated Kuwait, Japan, UAE and Qatar. Earlier, Nepal had won the Unity Cup 2-1 by defeating West Indies.
