Nepal end 12-year wait as Airee sinks Scotland

Nepal ended a 12-year wait for a third T20 World Cup win, concluding their 2026 campaign with a riotously received victory over Scotland in Mumbai. Sompal Kami, the only man still around from their maiden appearance at the 2014 World T20, provided the inspiration with the ball before Dipendra Singh Airee skewered a valiant Scotland performance with an unbeaten 50 off 23 to seal a high-octane chase.

Not for nothing are Nepal known as the "Cardiac Kids", and this game - on which nothing was riding other than national pride and bragging rights - swung heart-stoppingly from side to side throughout. Scotland made the early running with an opening stand of 80, Michael Jones in regal touch, but stumbled through the second half of the innings as Kami's double-wicket intervention sparked a slow-motion collapse.

In reply, Nepal's openers provided similar platform before they slipped from 74 for 0 to 98 for 3 on the back of Michael Leask's three-for, to the dismay of another heavily Nepal-supporting crowd at the Wankhede. At the end of the 14th over, they needed 71 from 36 balls.

Enter Airee, the dynamic allrounder and one of the totems of Nepal's recent successes. He struck four fours and three sixes alongside plenty of hard running - he only faced two dot balls - as the unbeaten fourth-wicket partnership with Gulsan Jha finally broke Scotland's resolve. Jha finished unbeaten on 24 from 17 and hit the winning runs, as Nepal gained a measure of absolution for near-misses against Bangladesh, South Africa and England over the last two World Cups.

Despite a stuttering finish with the bat, Scotland's defence started well, conceding just one boundary - a muscled six over midwicket from Kushal Bhurtel - in the first 23 balls. Brad Currie put down a tough caught-and-bowled chance off Bhurtel and Brad Wheal thought he had the opener edging behind, only for a review to confirm that the ball had flicked the leg bail (which didn't move) on its way through.

Aasif Sheikh then hoisted Wheal for the second six of the innings, and that was the trigger for Bhurtel to pile into Mark Watt, as Scotland's most-experienced spinner endured another off night. With Watt trying to fire the ball into the pads, Bhurtel took him for 4-6-6 - swept, slog-swept and pounded over long-on - to the shorter boundary. A top-edged sweep from Aasif also had enough to clear the man at deep backward square leg, as 23 runs came off the over. Nepal rode the momentum to finish the powerplay on top, 56 without loss.

Oliver Davidson helped rein in the scoring with two overs that cost just nine, but it was the introduction of Leask, the 35-year-old veteran of five T20 World Cups, that brought Scotland back into the contest. His first ball broke the opening stand, as Bhurtel scuffed a top edge to midwicket where Tom Bruce took a good running catch.

Leask's vein-popping roar of celebration was on show again in his second over, as Aasif skied to point, and he then bagged Nepal's captain, Rohit Paudel, off another top-edged sweep to send doubt rippling through the support in the stands. Leask had figures of 3 for 10 from three overs and seemed to be single-handedly turning the game again. Nepal were 100 for 3, with the asking rate up to almost 12 an over.

Jha hit the first boundary of the partnership, clubbing Davidson's final ball over long-on, then Airee took down the previously indomitable Leask. The first two balls of the 16th over were clobbered for six - making it three in a row overall - and Airee then found the gap at wide long-on to make it 20 from the over and reignite the passionate Nepali following. Currie was drilled through cover and slashed to third and then, after Wheal had conceded three runs from the first four balls of the 18th - making the requirement 25 off 14 - Airee went six and four to swing the pendulum once again. When Jha launched the next ball, from Currie, for six over extra cover, it was nine from 11 and the crowd officially had licence to go bananas. So they did.

Having inserted Scotland on a patchy, used surface, Paudel would have been hoping for his spinners to finally have an impact. But there was little assistance in the opening exchanges, and while George Munsey was the first to find the boundary, it was Jones who set the tempo at the top for Scotland.

A driven four was followed by six launched over long-off in the third over, with Nandan Yadav then picked off for back-to-back fours. Two more off-side boundaries followed in Kami's second over and when Munsey muscled Airee down the ground Scotland had raised their 50 from just 32 balls.

They were 52 without loss at the end of the powerplay and the openers pressed on, despite Munsey's struggle for timing. Sandeep Lamichhane's difficult tournament continued when Jones cracked his first ball for six, but Paudel finally got the job done himself, tempting Munsey into a toe-ended swipe down to long-off for a much-needed breakthrough.

Jones was involved in another sprightly fifty stand alongside Brandon McMullen, who smashed his fifth ball, from Lamichhane, for six as Scotland looked to press home their good start. After 15 overs, they were 131 for 1 with two established batters at the crease. By the end of the 16th, the score was 134 for 3, with both Jones and McMullen back in the hutch.

Kami was the spark Nepal so desperately needed. First he deceived Jones with a perfectly executed knuckleball that dipped and deceived the batter in flight to peg back leg stump; two balls later he had removed McMullen with an outrageous reaction grab in his follow through, another slower ball inducing a leading edge that he plucked one-handed above his head. A third wicket came in his final over, Bruce flummoxed by a back-of-the-hander. Kami's Buddha pose in celebration made him the calm amidst the storm of Nepal's fightback.

With Nandan also finishing well to claim 2 for 34, it meant Scotland had lost 6 for 30 in the space of 27 balls. Watt defiantly smacked the last delivery for six but they couldn't compete with Nepal's surge.