Multiple Authors<\/p>\n
Feb 9, 2026, 05:19 AM<\/p>\n
Well before Luke Wood<\/a> had laboured the penultimate over of this T20 World Cup match<\/a> between England<\/a> and Nepal<\/a>, Sam Curran<\/a>, standing at square leg, had begun stretching. Curran was going to bowl the final over regardless of how many runs Nepal took off Wood, who eventually gave away 14 runs including three wides, and took a wicket of Gulsan Jha<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nepal began the final over needing 10 to win. Lokesh Bam<\/a>, batting on 35 off 15 balls, was on strike.<\/p>\n A breeze blew in from the Arabian sea, providing some relief from the afternoon sun and none from the tension that engulfed the Wankhede Stadium. As Curran readied himself to try and deny Nepal the biggest win in their history, and among the biggest upsets at a World Cup, the crowd – 17,000-strong, mostly supporting Nepal – rose to their feet. They were about to witness history.<\/p>\n Despite temperatures in the high 30s (Celsius), thousands of Nepal fans had thronged Marine drive since morning. Several had travelled from other parts of India, or from Nepal. Dressed in their team’s dark blue and red jerseys and traditional Dhaka topis, they had surged into the stadium as early as they could, waving their national flag or displaying it on their painted cheeks. They would soon be in delirium, as Nepal took three England wickets in the first seven overs.<\/p>\n Even as Jacob Bethell<\/a> and Harry Brook<\/a> joined hands to arrest further collapse, the fans made sure they filled the England batters’ ears with their chants and screams. England’s players would later acknowledge the fans for creating an electrifying atmosphere. And just as the Bethell-Brook partnership threatened to take England close to 200, Nepal applied the squeeze, conceding just 19 runs from the 14h over to the 17h, and taking two wickets.<\/p>\n But death bowling has always been Nepal’s Achilles heel. On his day, England, shepherded by Will Jacks<\/a>, picked off 45 runs in the last three overs.<\/p>\n Nepal came into this tournament with only two wins against Full Member teams, both against West Indies in a bilateral series last year.<\/p>\n They now needed to chase 185. Could the Cardiac Kids<\/a> scale Mount Everest?<\/p>\n Kushal Bhurtel<\/a> made an early statement, carting Jofra Archer<\/a> for three consecutive fours behind and in front of point. Standing leg side of the ball, he leaned forward and opened the bat face, paying no regard to the speeds Archer was operating at through his first over, up in the high 140s (kph). Fourteen runs came in that Archer over, the second of Nepal’s innings. Bhurtel marched on. Wood’s attempt to swing the ball into the pads faltered and Bhurtel sneaked a four past fine leg. Two balls later, Bhurtel shuffled onto his backfoot and shovelled a six high over deep midwicket. The fans were hopping, jumping, chanting.<\/p>\n By the end of the powerplay, though, Nepal had though both Bhurtel and his opening partner Aasif Sheikh<\/a>.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n While Associate teams have become savvier and more skillful with greater exposure to franchise leagues, they still lack the depth of resources to match bigger teams for long stretches of games, even when they gain what seems a decisive upper hand, as USA showed at the same venue against India on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n Nepal, though, weren’t about to relenquish the position they had worked themselves into, going by the confident tone their two best batters – captain Rohit Paudel<\/a> and Dipendra Singh Airee<\/a> – set straightaway. Adil Rashid<\/a>‘s wristpin has been honed in 20th century basics. He dares batters to take on his sleight of hand, often floating the ball at them in an age where T20 spinners typically bowl at a speed just below military medium. On this day, Paudel and Airee ransacked runs off Rashid, taking 42 runs off his three overs. Airee was relentlessly proactive, reverse-hitting the legspinner for a four and a six.<\/p>\n When Archer came on to bowl his final over, Nepal needed two runs per ball from the last three overs. Archer’s second and third overs had gone for just three runs each, with the England quick using his cutters smartly on a used pitch. Now, having just been smacked for six off the previous ball, he dismissed Aarif Sheikh, hanging the ball wide of his hitting arc and inducing a thick outside edge.<\/p>\n The Nepal fans went from exultant to silent, and erupted again moments later, as Bam hit Archer for sixes off successive deliveries, the second a powerful hook off a quick short ball, lining it up perfectly by stepping across to off stump. Bam would say later he was not playing the man but the ball and the situation.<\/p>\n Nepal don’t do straightforward finishes. They came close to beating Bangladesh and South Africa during the 2024 T20 World Cup, only to falter late in their chases. They failed to chase 106 against Bangladesh<\/a>, and the South Africa defeat<\/a> was even more heartbreaking: they brought it down to eight off the last over and two off the last ball only to lose by a run, with Gulsan Jha<\/a> run out.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Jha was bowled by Wood off the last ball of the 19th over. It was left to Bam to take Nepal to the summit. But once again it wasn’t to be, as Curran, player of the final and tournament in the 2022 T20 World Cup, nailed his yorkers time and again.<\/p>\n “We nearly beat a Test nation, so there is a disappointment, no doubt,” Bam said.<\/p>\n He had been waiting for Curran to get one yorker wrong. “One big shot and it would have been a different scenario,” he said. “We almost beat the team. Anything can happen. We played exceptionally well. It was a good challenge. We are taking that belief to the next game.”<\/p>\n Jacks, the Player of the-Match, admitted he and England had been nervous, and that his “heart was thumping” as Curran bowled the final over. England. he said, hadn’t expected the match to go to the last ball.<\/p>\n There will no doubt be broken hearts in the Nepal camp and among their fans. But there will also be pride in the fact they have the players, the skills and the courage to meet the best teams on equal terms and dare to win. The players are honest in self-assessment, and understand where they need to keep improving.<\/p>\n The Cardiac Kids contunue to make our hearts race, and remain a compelling watch. Next step, Cathartic Kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nagraj Gollapudi CloseNagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo Multiple Authors Feb 9, 2026, 05:19 AM Well before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-467138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Nepal’s fans were in high spirits at the Wankhede\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kushal Bhurtel gave Nepal a flying start in the powerplay\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n
Lokesh Bam’s late assault almost took Nepal home\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n