18-year-old fast bowler Aarin Nadkarni wrecked Nepal's top-order with 4 for 14 in a five-over burst with the new ball as the visitors suffered their first loss of the tour at the hands of an inexperienced USA A squad in Texas.
Photo credit: USA Cricket
By Peter Della Penna in Grand Prairie, Texas (Twitter/X
@PeterDellaPenna)
The new ball combination of Aarin Nadkarni and Ayan Desai decimated Nepal’s batting order, taking six wickets between them to leave the visitors at 29 for 6 in the Powerplay before eventually bowling them out for 81 as USA A eventually chased down the target in 23.1 overs to win by four wickets in a match that lasted less than 50 overs combined.
After Nepal was sent in to bat first, Desai established USA A’s dominance early by striking in the first over as Anil Sah fell for a five-ball duck when cutting to Sanjay Krishnamurthi at backward point. Kushal Bhurtel fell for 2 in the following over to Nadkarni, edging to Sushant Modani at slip.
Things remained quiet for the next several overs before Nepal cracked in the sixth when Arjun Saud was given out for 2 on a nipbacker from Nadkarni that replays showed missed the bat and came off the thigh guard on the way through to wicketkeeper-captain Rahul Jariwala behind the stumps. However, there was no controversy in the following over when Desai had Dipendra Singh Airee guiding a catch to Nitish Kumar at gully for 5.
Nadkarni then struck three balls later in the eighth when Nepal captain Rohit Paudel fell for 11 chasing a wide delivery only to edge to Modani for another slip catch. Nadkarni then rounded off his spell in the 10
th by teaming up with Ali Sheikh to remove Aarif Sheikh for 2 as a short and wide ball was cut hard high toward backward point where Ali leaped full extension and knifed the ball out of the air one-handed with his favored left paw.
Bhim Sharki fell at the end of the 16
th to make it 51 for 7 when Abhishek Paradkar had him driving low to Yasir Mohammad at extra cover. It quickly became 52 for 8 when Sandeep Lamichhane inexplicably ran himself out for 1 at the non-striker’s end. Kushal Malla drove a full ball from left-arm spinner Vatsal Vaghela straight to Zia Shahzad at mid-off and Lamichhane drifted out of his end by three yards despite there being no run. Shahzad then alertly fired a relay to Vaghela as Lamichhane was lethargic in ground his bat and the bails were taken off in time.
Spinners then wiped out the tail as Dev Khanal fell for 12 to make it 72 for 9 when Utkarsh Srivastava bowled him through the gate with a beautifully flighted offbreak. Kushal Malla was the final wicket to fall for a top score of 18 when he slogged Ali Sheikh’s left-arm spin flat to Shahzad at long-on two balls into the 26
th over.
Nadkarni and Desai finished with 4 for 14 and 2 for 21 respectively as nobody in the USA A bowling attack bowled more than 5.5 overs sent down by Desai. Vaghela returned 0 for 12 in four overs of left-arm spin. Paradkar claimed 1 for 9 in four overs with USA’s only maiden. Srivastava claimed 1 for 5 in three overs while Ali Sheikh took 1 for 1 off of just three deliveries. Mohammad ended with 0 for 18 off six.
USA A had a mildly adventurous time in their brief chase, losing six wickets in just 23.2 overs. Modani was the first to fall in the fifth over, bowled for 3 defending down the wrong line against an inswinger from Rijan Dhakal to make it 13 for 1. Jariwala looked well set on 26 before he gave his wicket away to Lamichhane in the 10th. Having driven the legspinner for six in the previous over, he tried to repeat the shot but instead skied a simple catch to long-off. Krishnamurthi became Lamichhane’s second victim in the 14
th, given lbw for 10 after a googly skidded low into the pads going under the right-hander’s attempted pull shot to make it 59 for 3.
Three more wickets fell with the target in single digits to make the scorecard look more flattering for Nepal than it should have. Kumar was on 29 when he tried to flick Lamichhane over mid-on only for a stock legbreak to take the outer half of the bat resulting in a skied catch over mid-off to Malla making it 74 for 4. USA was one shot away from victory when the next two wickets fell. Srivastava was out for 9 driving left-arm spinner Lalit Rajbanshi low to extra cover to make it 79 for 5 before Skanda Rohit Sharma left enough of a gap between bat and pad while prodding forward for a googly to sneak through and bowl him for 2 to become Lamichhane’s fourth wicket.
It took Ali Sheikh to flick a boundary through the leg side off the first ball of the 24
th over to eventually get USA across the line and wind up 5 not out. Kwame Patton Jr was 1 not out at the other end.
Lamichhane ended with 4 for 27 in 8.1 overs to lead the Nepal bowling unit. Rijan Dhakal claimed 1 for 17 in five overs of left-arm pace. Rajbanshi finished with 1 for 18 in five overs of left-arm spin. Karan KC returned 0 for 21 in four overs with the new ball while Airee bowled the only other over for Nepal to give away 2 runs.
USA A faces Scotland in another 50-over warmup match on Wednesday at Grand Prairie Stadium. Nepal has four days off before they return to action against the USA senior squad in an ODI on Sunday.