Nepal Secures 2024 T20 World Cup Spot with UAE Victory in Semifinal

Nepal played a tremendous level of cricket to beat the UAE by eight wickets with 17 balls to spare in the semi-final of the Asia Qualifier for the T20 Men's World Cup 2024 and book a place in the main event. Nepal will play Oman in the final who beat Baharain by 10 wickets. Both the finalists irrespective of the result will directly qualify for the 2024 World Cup. This is the second time Nepal will play in a T20 World Cup event. They first played in the 2014 World Cup ten years ago.  

Winning the toss and batting first, UAE made 134 for 9 in their twenty overs. Vritiya Aravind top scored with 64 from 51 balls which included eight fours and two sixes. Captain Muhammad Wasim made 16 ball 26. Besides this, no other batsmen could contribute any significant runs.

For Nepal, other than Abinash Bohara who gave away 36 runs in three overs without taking any wickets, all other bowlers bowled marvelously well. Kushal Malla was the best of the bowlers taking three wickets and giving just eleven runs in his three overs. Sandeep Lamichhane also bowled a great spell conceding just fourteen runs and taking two wickets in his four overs. Sompal Kami and Captain Rohit Paudel took a wicket each.

Chasing the target, Nepal lost Kushal Bhurtel early at the team's score of 26. But Aasif Sheikh, who ultimately made a match-winning 64, and Gulshan Jha made a partnership of 41 runs. After Gulshan Jha got out to Basil Hameed for 22 runs, Captain Rohit Paudel carried the innings with Sheikh to reach the target. Paudel made an impressive 34 from 20 balls.

None of the UAE bowlers could put in an impactful spell, with the two Nepal wickets going to Basil Hameed and Nilansh Keswani. They were not much helped by the comparatively low score set by their batsmen.

Aasif Sheikh was declared Player of the Match. The win is also sweet revenge for Nepal as they were beaten by UAE in the final of the Tri-Nation T20 tournament just days ago.