Debutants Italy outperform to crush Nepal in World Cup

For the second straight match Nepal crashed to yet another defeat in the  men’s  ICC  Twenty20 World Cup cricket in  Mumbai, India.

The Nepali outfit  suffered a shock, embarrassing and crushing 10 wickets defeat at the hands of debutants Italy.

With two losses they are winless and languishing at the bottom of the group.The latest unexpected and stunning setback has significantly dwindled their chances of qualifying to the round of Super 8s.

The Wankhede stadium packed with Nepal’s supporters were left highly disappointed,frustrated and in disbelief.

Sensing a potential victory, they  were in a celebratory  mood and   showed up in big numbers  to support the team.They could not believe what they witnessed and unfolded much to their chagrin.

Nepal went into the crucial tie against newcomers Italy as strong favorites. They were expected to  triumph over the opposition based on their experience,skills, strengths and their last performance against England.

Contrary to expectations,they made a total  mess of the opportunity to make mincemeat of the opponent, register their  first victory in the tournament and  keep themselves in contention  for a place in the Super 8s.

Instead they underperformed ,struggled badly with both bat and bowl,and  eventually stumbled to a humiliating 10 wicket loss. 

Considering their fighting and superb  performance against England,nobody in their wildest imagination thought Nepal would perform so poorly and go down by such a wide margin.

Nothing went right for Nepal in the match as they were overcome with mediocrity and performance slump. They faltered to deliver  a winning performance when it mattered most.

Italy elected to field after winning the toss and the decision paid off as they bowled  out  Nepal for a paltry total of 123 in 19.3 overs.

The top order batters were inconsistent, lacked application ,discipline and floundered, thus once again failing in their efforts  to  come up with big knocks and important partnerships to build  a competitive  total,

They  got pinned down  by spinners, and   never got going as they struggled to score runs freely as wickets fell at regular intervals. 

The  scores of top order batters - Kushal Bhurtel(5 runs), Aarif Sheikh ( 27 runs) , Rohit Paudel (23 runs),Dipendra S Airee(17 runs) and Aasif Sheikh(20 runs) speaks volumes of batters' struggle .

Having to defend a reachable total the  bowlers were under pressure  from the outset. They had to be at their very best to cease the opposition from running away with the match.

However,they  were dogged by subpar  performance and failed to rescue the team.They struggled  to  find  good line and length throughout .As a result, batters were free of pressure and had a field day,scoring runs freely.

None of the  experienced bowlers   Sandeep Lamichhane, Karan KC, Dipendra Singh Airee, Lalit  Rajbhansi and Kushal Bhurtel  made an impact and failed to  put pressure on batters, and , more importantly,make a breakthrough.

 

In a display of  confident and aggressive batting ,the opening pair of  Mosca brothers Justin and Anthony  virtually  pulverized the bowlers.

Justin scored 60 with the help of five 4s and three 6s, while Anthony’s  63 consisted of  three 4s and six 6s.

The duo remained undefeated and handed their team the first ever World  Cup  match victory in just 12.4 overs.

Team Nepal next takes on the undefeated formidable West Indies. Obviously, this is a big challenge and an acid test for them . Putting the  latest setback behind, they need to regroup  and throw in everything to bounce back with a good performance.