Decoding World Cup-bound Nepal's T20 performance across phases

KATHMANDU, June 1: The Nepali cricket team is set to recreate history by featuring against the Netherlands on Tuesday at Dallas, the United States of America. It will be Nepal’s only second appearance in an ICC World Event.

The ICC World Cup T20 to be played in the USA and West Indies features 20 teams. T20 is cricket’s shortest format played for 40 overs with 20 allocated in each innings. Every over consists of six legal balls. This format is usually popular for boundaries rather than wickets.

Nepal is the second qualifying team from Asia among the non-full-members. It finished second along with winners Oman in an ICC World Cup Asia Qualifiers held in Nepal. Nepal and Oman will be joining full-member Asian giants India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Likewise, Nepal is pooled in Group D along with familiar opponents in recent times - the Netherlands, T20 powerhouse South Africa and fellow Asian counterparts Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

T20 remains a highly volatile format. It has bridged the gap between the established and emerging cricket nations more than ever. Nepal has been playing a lot of T20 international cricket in recent times - as many as 28 trailing back to September, 2023.

The timeline includes ACC Men's Premier Cup held in Oman, T20I Tri-series including PNG held in Hong Kong, T20I Tri-series including the Netherlands and Namibia held in Nepal, ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifiers held in Nepal, and Men's Asian Games including Mongolia, the Maldives and India held in China.

Nepal has maintained a rigid core of players in these matches. The batters broke multiple records in a match against Mongolia during the Asian Games. It triumphed and sealed the World Cup spot in the Asia Qualifiers. Whereas lost the home tri-series and in Hong Kong before the biggest setback of the year in Oman. Nepal lost both the final and third-place playoff match in Oman during the ACC Premier Cup.

Hence, it was missing out in the Asia Cup and the Emerging Nations Cup subsequently.

The World Cup squad is locked. Here’s how the Nepal team has performed in T20Is in recent times.

Here phase means the period of overs during a full played innings by a team. The first one to six overs are powerplay overs with field restrictions. Seven to 15 are middle-overs with a longer stretch of nine overs. The death overs are 16 to 20.

As shown in the table, death overs are Nepal’s most productive according to run-rate whereas most runs are scored in the middle due to the usual stretch of nine overs. It also shows Nepal has done better to preserve wickets for the death overs. The power play usually has been good for Nepal.

Further decoding the stats according to home and away venues.

It can be seen that Nepal’s numbers for games at home venues are slightly better than those played at venues away from home.  Nepal has better average in two out of three phases at home compared to away games. Similarly, batters also average better at home than away. That despite the numbers being highly inflated by Nepal’s record 314 runs against Mongolia. It still stands as a world record for a team total in T20I cricket. Fair to say, Nepal has found it comparatively difficult on tours without the home support.

Likewise, the batters stats show Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh have been mainstay in the powerplay overs. Youngest captain of the World Cup, Rohit Kumar Paudel has been ever present in the middle overs whereas Dipendra Singh Airee has been the lead batter in the death overs. Kushal Malla’s exploits in both middle and death gives a necessary edge for Nepal in the world cup.

Paudel’s versatility is commendable contributing to all three phases of the game. His runs and form against the West Indies A make a few of the best performances by a Nepali batter in T20s. He scored 265 runs and scored his maiden T20 (not international status) century. Clearly, his form will be crucial for Nepal in the upcoming event.

In the bowling department, Karan KC and Sompal Kami remain a long standing hunting pair in the power plays. Gulshan Jha is a surprise topper in the middle overs which is supposed to be dominated by spin bowlers. Likewise, the success of Kushal Malla, another batting allrounder, in that phase is a welcome headache for Nepal think tank. It is now certain that Nepal is set to miss the services of leg-spin bowler Sandeep Lamichhane in the world stage.

Abinash Bohara has lived up to his moniker of being a death-over specialist by topping the charts in that phase. Bohara and Airee may have to do all the heavy-lifting in that phase given the third successful bowler, KC, in that phase has a slightly higher strike and economy rate.

Note: Extra runs are not included