The match held at the MCC Cricket Ground in Ajman, United Arab Emirates on January 15, 2018 saw the Nepali blind cricket team beating Australian team by eight wickets with four overs left.

In this 40-over match, Australia chose to bat first and had set a target of 296 all out in 36.2 overs.

Though Australia made a dashing start, its batting order had to fall for the amazing bowling performance by Nepali bowlers Durga Dutta Paudel, Bikram Bahadur Rana and Bharat Thapa.

While Durga Dutta claimed three wickets, Bikram and Thapa claimed one wicket each.

Amazing 125-run Partnership

Then Nepal’s batting innings began with an amazing performance by the Opener Ramesh Baniya who went on to score 47 runs.

Further, Badela stood as the man-of-the-match for his 125 runs in 76 balls with 14 boundaries, while his partner Chaulagain scored 35 runs and remained a not-out.

Finally, the team finished the set target in just 22 overs with an outstanding 137-run batting partnership by Padam Bahadur Badela and Badri Chaulagain.

The latest win against Australia comes an encouragement to the Nepali team as it marks the country’s first-ever participation in the 40-over Blind Cricket World Cup Tournament after losing three consecutive matches against Bangladesh, Pakistan and India.

In this fifth blind cricket tournament, currently being held in Pakistan, six teams including the host country Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia and Nepal cleared the qualifying round.

However, with Nepal losing out three consecutive matches, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh made it to the semi-finals.

A Successful Good Bye

Meanwhile, the Nepali blind cricket team players skipper Kirtan Shrestha Duwal and his Deputy Bikram Bahadur Rana announced their retirement.

The two players have been key in taking ahead the Nepali blind cricket team since the team began 11 years ago.

After serving for a long duration, now the two players announced retirement saying they would wish to make a way for young players.

Overall, Rana has played two Twenty20 World Cups for Blind and Duwal has played one.

The ongoing 40-over World Cup tournament is Nepal’s first such tournament in the blind cricket history. 

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Nepali blind cricket team is currently on Pakistan tour for the fifth edition of the championship jointly hosted by the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.

This tournament, to be held during January 8-21, 2018, will see first match between Nepali and Bangladeshi teams at Lahore Gymkhana grounds on January 8, 2018.

Following this, Nepal will play three other matches in Pakistan and two in UAE. After Bangladesh, Nepal will be playing with the Indian team at Faisalabad on January 9 and with Pakistani team at the Jinnah Stadium on January 10, 2018, respectively.

Then the Nepali team leaves for UAE to take on Australia at the MCC Ground in Ajman
on January 13, 2018 and also end its league campaign with Sri Lanka match at the same venue.

The semi-finals and final matches of this blind cricket tournament will be held at Ajman and Gaddafi Stadiums, respectively.

Eyeing Semi-Finals

“Our target is to reach the semi-finals this time. We know that Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka are the best teams in the tournament,” says Nepali blind cricket team captain Kirtan Shrestha Duwal.

The top four teams after the round-robin league will advance to finals.

“We feel that Australia and Bangladesh are just slightly above us in terms of strength. If every one of us up our games a little bit, we can make it to the last four. For the first time, our preparations have been very good for the World Cup and we are very positive to play well,” Duwal added.

Speaking on his team’s preparations for the tournament, the Cricket Association of Blind (CAB) Nepal President Pawan Ghimire said, “We must say that we have had the best training and got good amount of assistance from Nepali national cricket team coach Jagat Tamatta. We are hopeful that we can come up with desired results.”

Riding on Success!

The Nepali blind cricket team is gearing up for this tournament with an experience it has gained from the past through the 2017 Twenty20 World Cup for Blind, among others.

It is noteworthy here that Nepal left a special mark in the blind cricket history with an outstanding victories over South Africa and New Zealand in the 2017 Twenty20 World Cup for Blind held in India.

This tournament will be Nepal’s third such tournament in the global cricketing event for the visually-impaired players.

Nepali team will be playing a 40-over World Cup for the first time through the Blind Cricket Tournament 2018.

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