Nepal win 'the loudest game' for their fantastic fanatics

A what-if. Two big heartbreaks. And finally, a sigh of relief. Nepal's T20 World Cup campaign rarely travelled in straight lines, and fittingly, neither did their final group game against Scotland. It had all the ebbs and flows, and threatened to unravel before settling at last in Nepal's favour. "Cardiac kids" for a reason, right?

It was a twist worth the wait for the players and the thousands of fans of the team that had taken over the Wankhede Stadium for the tournament.

"We normally say that if you want to be a Nepali cricket fan, you have to have a strong heart because we play a lot of tight games," Nepal captain Rohit Paudel said after the win against Scotland.

Paudel spoke from experience. He was there in 2018 during the WCL Division 2 tournament when Nepal rode three thrillers to secure a place in the World Cup qualifiers, which was when their heartstopper reputation was forged.

There have been a few such games in the last year or so, too. There was the extraordinary three-Super Over epic against Netherlands, then the nervy escapes against UAE and Qatar in the T20 World Cup Qualifier last year that confirmed their passage to the main event.

Even their opening game here, against England, was a close one that ended in anguish, but it fuelled belief that something special was brewing.

But then came the big losses to Italy and West Indies and those hopes were punctured, leaving one of the loudest crowds at this T20 World Cup absolutely silenced. Which is why this win against Scotland in a dead rubber felt anything but inconsequential. It was their first win in a T20 World Cup in 12 years and the first one in the main tournament, the previous two having come in the first round of the 2014 edition.

The players, too, acknowledged the crowd after the game, taking a lap of honour and soaking in the applause.

"I think we have given that smile to them," Paudel said. "Especially, the way we started against England, a lot of fans were there in the ground. But after the England game [too], a lot of people came to watch but we, as a team, disappointed them.

"We wanted to give a win, give a smile on their face. Because they have travelled a long way to come here and support us and Nepal. So I think this win was very important to them. And hopefully, from here, we will build on."

The match unfolded in two big twists.

After winning the toss and opting to bowl, Nepal let Scotland bat their way to 131 for 1 at the end of 15 overs. For a side that had played all four of their games at the Wankhede, the surface still seemed an unsolved puzzle. They had managed just one wicket across their previous two outings, and as Michael Jones settled in, it looked like the game had already slipped away from them.

And then came Sompal Kami, as if he had finally cracked the code. Coming from around the wicket, he rolled his fingers over a leg-sided knuckleball and Jones, who was cruising on 71, swung hard, only to see the leg bail disturbed as the (lack of) pace deceived him. Two balls later, Kami delivered the moment that sent the crowd into frenzy, drawing a leading edge from Brandon McMullen with a slow yorker, and snapping up a stunning one-handed return catch above his head in his follow-through. In three balls, he had brought Scotland's charge to a standstill.

In his next over, he bowled a back-of-the-hand slower ball that tailed into the blockhole and shattered Tom Bruce's stumps. Kami celebrating by sitting cross-legged in meditation as the crowd erupted. It felt like a throwback of sorts: Kami had been a teenager when Nepal made their maiden T20 World Cup appearance in 2014, picking up 2 for 13 in their first game against Hong Kong. Here again, he was at the centre of a statement.

The second twist came during the chase, which had tapered off a bit after a solid start. Dipendra Singh Airee and Gulsan Jha had a big job in front of them - 71 runs from 36 balls - but it took just one over to tilt the contest. Airee targeted Michael Leask, Scotland's most effective bowler until then, first muscling him through deep midwicket, then hoisting one behind square, and then carving him across the line for four, taking 20 runs off the over to bring the chase, and the stadium, alive.

The duo seemed unflustered even with the pressure mounting. Jha hit probably the shot of the evening, opening the face of the bat to carve Brad Currie inside-out over extra cover, a shot that put Nepal within touching distance. With four needed from the final over and memories of past heartbreaks hovering, they ensured there would be no late stumble, and the winning runs were scored with four balls to spare. As the noise hit a crescendo, Jha removed his helmet and bowed to the fans.

Even the opposition couldn't ignore the impact of the crowd.

"That's the loudest game I've ever played. It was crazy," Currie said after the match. "It was genuinely like playing a cricket game in a nightclub. It's going to feel like we're playing in a library when we get back to Scotland.

"There was a period where we sort of had a couple of quiet overs, and I looked around and was like, the crowd's a bit quiet now and it's like, that's us winning. We spoke about trying to win the powerplays in both innings to try and keep them as quiet as you can. But it's pretty hard because they cheer everything."

Airee finished as Nepal's highest run-scorer in the tournament and is currently second on the overall list. What set him apart? "I think Airee took his time in the middle," Paudel said. "The game against West Indies, he took his time and then later on he accelerated. He was used to that wicket and today he went from ball one only. So I think in this tournament, he played really well. He took his time but still he was charging [at] them. We have to learn from him, the way he adapted those situations.

There are several things on Nepal's wishlist - red-ball cricket, fixtures against top-ranked teams and finding consistency being a few of them. For now, they have fallen below expectations. But they will "come back stronger", that's the vow they have made to their fans.