Rohit Paudel on Losing against India in Asia Cup 2023: Nepal Men’s Cricket team captain Rohit Paudel opens on losing their first international match against India and says “Conditions were really hard”.
Rohit Paudel on Losing against India in Asia Cup 2023
The Asia Cup debutants started off on a good note against Pakistan in the tournament opener. After dismissing both the Pakistani openers inside seven overs, they managed to keep a lid on the scoring rate in the first half of the innings.
With Babar Azam and Iftikhar Ahmed’s centuries, Pakistan scored 342 runs and handed a 238-run defeat to Nepal. In their second game of the Asia Cup 2023 tournament, Nepal was scheduled to play against India for the first time in international cricket.
India who decided to bowl first made a sloppy start in their first bowling inning in the Asia Cup 2023 tournament by dropping 3 catches within 5 overs. India’s first match of the tournament ended with no result after rain interrupted the match against Pakistan.
With many expectations floating around regarding the Indian bowling attack in the Asia Cup, Bumrah skips the match against Nepal and will rejoin the team for the Super 4 round.
In the absence of Bumrah, the Board decided to include Mohammed Shami in the playing 11 for the match against Nepal.
Nepal executed a decent batting where the team scored 230 runs after losing all their 10 wickets in 48.2 overs. Nepal opening batter Kushal Bhurtel grabs the attention of many after smashing Siraj’s delivery out of the stadium.
After a lot of interruptions by rain, the match was reduced to 23 overs with a revised target of 145 runs by the DLS method. India chased the target without losing a wicket in 20.1 overs.
Speaking on the defeat, Npeal captain Rohit Paudel said “The openers did a good job for us, the middle order could have done better, we were 30 runs short and if the middle order had done well then we could have reached 260-270. Our lower order has been doing a great job and contributing in the last 4-5 months. The conditions were really hard but our bowlers bowled well as the ball was not gripping”.
India will play their next game of the tournament in the Super Fours round against Pakistan on September 10 at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
