Former England allrounder Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff was on hand in Kathmandu to congratulate Kushal Bhurtel after the Nepal opener scored a flawless unbeaten 120 in Nepal's nine-wicket thrashing of USA. 

Photo credit: ICC

By Peter Della Penna (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
 
Tribhuvan University Stadium continued to be a house of horrors for USA on Saturday afternoon as they extended their ODI losing streak at the venue to six matches following a nine-wicket rout at the hands of hosts Nepal in the ongoing tri-series as part of ICC Cricket World Cup League Two. Dipendra Singh Airee’s tidy bowling and electric fielding triggered a stunning collapse for USA as they slipped from 122 for 1 to 195 all out in just 43.3 overs. Kushal Bhurtel then returned to the Nepal batting order with a vengeance, striking an unbeaten 120 off 118 balls upon being recalled to the lineup having missed Nepal’s last three ODIs after being dropped following a series of low scores across his previous eight ODI innings in which he scored 114 runs and averaged just 14.50.
 
Bhurtel’s innings was a chanceless knock, looking assured throughout the Nepal chase having been given another chance by Nepal coach Stuart Law after Binod Bhandari made scores of 0 and 10 in Nepal’s previous two ODIs while opening the batting in place of Bhurtel. The 29-year-old’s wakeup call being left out of the lineup appeared to have achieved its desired effect as he calmly played out a maiden in the opening over of Nepal’s chase against Saurabh Netravalkar before later unleashing himself. 
 
USA had a brief opportunity to make a dent in Nepal’s ruthless march to victory when Aasif Sheikh took on Sai Mukkamalla for a single in the second over of play when he tried to tap a delivery from left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige to mid-on. Replays showed Mukkamalla’s direct hit at the non-striker’s end caught Aasif clearly short of making his ground for the single, but standing umpire Faisal Afridi was slow getting in position to make the line call after the ball had been put in play and ruled not out in favor of Aasif. It meant that Nepal’s opening pair were free to carry on forging a 145-run opening stand. 
 
Bhurtel hit Netravalkar for six in the third over, then bashed him back over his head for another six in the ninth during a 15-run over that knocked the former USA captain out of the attack. An edged four between the keeper and short third off Shubham Ranjane’s medium pace in the 10^th over brought up the half-century stand. It was a rare streaky shot from Bhurtel and he was back to middling the ball in the 14^th when he hammered a sweep off legspinner Mohammad Mohsin for his seventh four to bring up a half-century off 45 balls. 
 
Aasif was cruising at the opposite end at a slightly slower pace, but lofted a gorgeous extra cover drive for four off Kenjige in the 18^th over to bring up the century partnership. A two stroked wide of the cover sweeper by Aasif in the 24^th over off left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh brought him to his own half-century off 67 balls. For awhile, it looked like Nepal might coast to victory without losing a wicket, but in their bid to remain aggressive and chase down the target with plenty of time to spare, Aasif fell for 58 when a slog sweep against Mohsin in the 27^th over found Harmeet at deep square leg. 
 
ODI debutant Ishan Pandey joined Bhurtel and the senior partner remained on center stage for the majority of their 54-run unbroken stand to end the match. A four by Bhurtel off Milind Kumar in the 28^th over moved him into the 90s before he charged Kumar’s offspin in the 30^th and launched him for six back over his head to move to 98. After waiting out a maiden bowled by Kumar to Pandey in the 32^nd, Bhurtel tapped two singles off Mohsin in the 33^rd, the latter through cover, to bring up a second career ODI century off 104 balls. 
 
Bhurtel continued taking a liking to Kumar’s bowling, hitting his 13^th and final four off him in the 33^rd before charging him again in the 36^th to blast a majestic fourth six over extra cover. With four runs needed to win at the start of the 37^th, Bhurtel traded singles with Pandey before Pandey drove Kenjige through extra cover with scores level for a match-clinching boundary and the first of Pandey’s ODI career. 
 
Mohsin ended with 1 for 41 as USA’s lone wicket-taker. Kenjige ended with 0 for 39 off 6.4 overs after coming into the lineup in place of Jessy Singh. Sanjay Krishnamurthi wound up being USA’s most economical bowler, starting with a maiden and ending with 0 for 5 off two overs. Harmeet was also tidy with 0 for 28 off seven. Kumar was the least economical of USA’s spinners, ending with 0 for 31 off five despite bowling a maiden. Netravalkar ended with 0 for 35 off six while Ranjane returned 0 for 19 off three overs. 
 
Kenjige in for Jessy was not the only lineup change USA made on the day as Mukkamalla walked out for the coin toss as stand-in captain before delivering the news that Monank Patel was forced to miss out with an undisclosed injury with Krishnamurthi taking his spot in the XI. USA won the toss and chose to bat first, making breezy progress for the first 90 minutes of play before the innings rapidly unraveled across the subsequent hour and a half. 
 
Smit Patel survived another early chance to go on to make his second half-century in as many matches of the series. Prodding away from his body on the sixth stump line to a length delivery from Sompal Kami in the fifth over, Smit edged a regulation waist high chance on 14 that Aasif initially appeared to pouch behind the stumps as Smit began to walk off the ground only to realize moments later that the ball slipped through Aasif’s gloves and trickle away toward fine leg for a single. Kami was able to make a breakthrough in the seventh over though, bowling a gem of a delivery to Shayan Jahangir that nipped back and beat an attempted drive to clip the bails off middle stump to make it 22 for 1. 
 
Shehan Jayasuriya joined Smit and the pair looked impervious for the next hour together. Smit pulled pace bowler Nandan Yadav for six over square leg before flat-batting Gulshan Jha over midwicket for another six in the 15^th to bring up a 45-ball half-century. Jayasuriya got into the act against Sandeep Lamichhane in the 20^th, hitting the legspinner for six before boundaries off Yadav and Bhurtel in the following two overs took him to 49. A flicked single through square leg in the 23^rd off Airee brought up Jayasuriya’s first half-century in USA colors off of 51 balls. 
 
But Jayasuriya’s elation faded just as quickly when he came back on strike and immediately got out by driving Airee flat to Jha at long-off, making it 122 for 2. Airee continued to ramp up the pressure in the field in the next over as a chance to runout Smit on 67 from midwicket went just wide of the non-striker’s stumps. But Nepal only had to wait two more overs for another wicket as Mukkamalla played back to a googly from Lamichhane and was bowled for 4 to make it 140 for 3. Having been dropped off Kami’s bowling during the pace bowler’s new-ball spell, Kami returned in the 31^st over and got his revenge on Smit with a length ball that had enough extra bounce to clip the edge on an attempted cut and dismiss Smit for 83 at 158 for 4. 
 
Drinks were called after 33 overs with USA 166 for 4 and Ranjane relatively fresh to the middle alongside Kumar. But chaos unfolded three balls after play resumed when Kumar tapped to extra cover and initially hesitated for a run before calling for a run upon seeing the ball trickle away from sub fielder Bhim Sharki’s attempted diving stop. However, Sharki recovered quickly to pick up the ball cleanly and fire a relay to Aasif as Ranjane belatedly set off for Kumar’s tardy call and wound up paying the price, runout for 2 to make it 170 for 5. Krishnamurthi lasted just seven balls for 1 before he loosely flicked a leg stump half-volley in the air to Lalit Rajbanshi at deep backward square leg for a wicket to Jha making it  171 for 6 in the 35^th.
 
The last seven overs of the innings turned into the Airee show as the allrounder singlehandedly wiped out the rest of the USA order. Kumar was given lbw for 28 in the 38^th over after shuffling too far across his stumps and missing a leg side flick to make it 182 for 7. Mohsin was runout without scoring in the following over when he tried to tap a single off Rohit Paudel into midwicket, but Harmeet rightly turned down the call, recognizing the ball was going straight to Airee who intercepted it and gently lobbed a relay to Aasif with Mohsin having given up at the same end as Harmeet to make it 183 for 8. 
 
Kenjige made just 1 before he was also given lbw to Airee, defending down the wrong line while playing back and across to be struck in front of middle stump making it 186 for 9. Netravalkar was able to survive long enough for Harmeet to blast Airee for a straight six in the 42^nd over. But Harmeet fell trying to repeat the shot in the 44^th and instead scuffed his shot for a simple catch to Paudel at long-on to fall for 14. 
 
Airee ended with 4 for 24 in 7.3 overs to go along with a runout in what looked like a certain Player of the Match performance until Bhurtel decimated USA’s bowling attack in the chase. Kami took 2 for 35 off seven overs after being rotated into the lineup for Karan KC. Lamichhane took 1 for 41 and was the only Nepal bowler to complete a full 10 overs. Jha took 1 for 28 off four as the other wicket-taker in the attack. Rajbanshi never threatened to take a wicket but was also tight in conceding just 0 for 35 off nine overs. 
 
USA now has three days off before returning to action on Wednesday against Scotland. Nepal will face Scotland on Monday in their next match of the tri-series.