Nepal women’s cricket team shine in Rwanda

The women’s national cricket team of Nepal’s  participation in international cricket continues unabated.

As I write, currently  Team Nepal is in  Malaysia  gearing up for the   Twenty20 International two -match series  against the home team.

The first match is  on May 18th  taking place in Bayuemas, Kuala  Lumpur, followed by the second on May 20th.

Let me remind  everyone that this is the third  T20 series  between the  two teams with Malaysia as the hosts for the straight third time.

Prior to the upcoming series,the two teams had  clashed in 12  T20 matches with  Nepal and Malaysia winning 8 and 4 matches respectively.

The 1st  five -match series held  in 2023 was competitive and a close affair with Nepal  winning  3-2.

The 2025  second  five-match series outcome  was a repeat of  2023 in terms of both performance and outcome. Nepal won by an identical margin.

Considering Nepal’s  winning record against Malaysia,they are  once again favored to win the upcoming series. To add, in the  T20 world rankings Nepal is 21st, while Malaysia is 28th.

Nepal was in  action in the recently concluded 2026  ICC Women’s  Challenge Trophy held in Rwanda .

In the double round-robin they competed against the United States, Rwanda ,Italy and Vanuatu. With five  wins   and   three defeats they  accumulated 10 points to finish runners-up behind the United States.

They went down to the  United States in both matches. They split the two games against Vanuatu losing one and winning the other. Against  Rwanda and Italy, they won all four matches.  

Overall, Team Nepal  led by Indu Barma put in a good, impressive  and encouraging performance.They deserve a round of applause for their efforts.

The  players  benefited greatly from the tournament, gaining the much needed experience,international exposure and the chance to learn the finer points of the game.

In the limelight was bowler Kabita Kunwar’s sterling performance. She shared the top wicket taker honor. She claimed 15 wickets,including 6 wickets haul against  Vanuatu in the second match.Besides, she batted fairly  well to hit 58 runs.

The other bowlers Rachana Chaudhary

(9 wickets ), Manisha Upadhyaya (8 wickets) and Riya Sharma (7 wickets) also performed well.

On the batting front,opener Samjhana Khadka was the team’s top scorer with 161,which included 52 runs against Vanuatu.

 

Skipper Barma ended the tournament with  107 runs.The second half centurion for the team  was Rubi Poddar who scored 51 against the United States in the 2nd match.

Without a doubt the team’s batting has to improve  by miles in order to  become competitive and stand a chance against stronger opponents going forward.The batting must be  consistent and solid 

There  is a need for batters to  be totally focused, committed and  eager to improve  their batting .

They have to work on their shortcomings and  batting technicalities on a regular basis. More importantly, sustainable improvement is crucial for batters.

Going by the team’s recent performances and results, unquestionably, they are talented,progressing, showing  lots of promise and  heading in the right direction. 

Cricket Association of Nepal must continue to extend full support to women’s cricket  in the country.They have to consolidate and professionalize domestic cricket, provide players with quality  coaches, effective training and  regular international exposure.