Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill bounced back from their disappointing performances against Pakistan, smashing half-centuries to help India thrash Nepal by 10 wickets in Kandy on Monday and collect their first win of the Asia Cup.
Rohit (74 not out) and Gill (67 not out) also stitched an unbroken 147-run opening stand in what was a complete domination of the Nepalese bowling attack, powering the Men in Blue to their first victory of the tournament after the match against Pakistan on Saturday ended in a washout.
Rohit and Gill had been dismissed for scores of 15 and 10 respectively while facing a red-hot Pakistani attack in their first match, which also took place in Kandy, with the Indians getting reduced to 66/4 at one stage before a solid fifth-wicket partnership between Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya helped them post a competitive 266 on board.
Rohit was off to a nervy start after Nepal posted a respectable 230 on the board thanks to valuable contributions from Aasif Sheikh (58) and Sompal Kami (48) as well as a slew of dropped catches by the Indians.
Seamer Karan KC managed to beat both edges of his blade in the testing first over and even convinced Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel to opt for a review after an unsuccessful LBW appeal against the ‘Hitman’. Even if they didn’t succeed in overturning the decision, Karan had managed to build pressure on the Indian openers.
The players were soon forced to head back to the dressing with the drizzle transforming into an absolute downpour — the heaviest witnessed in the Asia Cup so far — with India 17 for no loss after facing a little over two overs. The prospect of a second consecutive washout for India appeared quite likely with play being held up for more than an hour, although India would have progressed to the Super Four stage regardless.
Rain did eventually relent and the covers did start coming off at around 9.30 pm local time, with play restarting 45 minutes later after the umpires reduced the chase to 23 overs and revised India’s target to 145.
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A revised target was always going to favour the batting side, and it was a one-way street in favour of Rohit and Gill from there on. The duo soon began to make merry against an attack not used to bowling to batters of Rohit and Gill’s calibre (something they had found out against Babar Azam’s Pakistan last week as well). Additionally, the conditions also became disadvantageous for the Nepal bowlers with the ball becoming difficult to grip due to the wet outfield.
Though he got off to a sedate start, Rohit soon accelerated past his younger batting partner and ended up smashing six fours and five mighty sixes in a Player of the Match-winning performance. Gill, who had collected back-to-back fours in the first two deliveries that he faced on the day, preferred keeping the ball along the ground as he collected eight fours — including the winning boundary — along with one majestic six down the ground.
Sheikh, Kami impress against mighty India
Earlier in the game, a gritty half-century from Sheikh and valuable contributions from Bhurtel (38), Dipendra Singh Airee (29) besides Kami helped Nepal post 230 against the Men in Blue.
The Indian fielders were put to test against the tournament debutants, but were far from their best early on after there were three drop chances inside the first five overs. While Shreyas Iyer failed to get hold of the ball at first slip in the first over, with Bhurtel on strike, Virat Kohli put down a sitter in the very next over, where Mohammed Siraj could have dismissed Sheikh.
In the fifth over, Kishan too put down a chance off Mohammed Shami’s ball when Bhurtel was on strike.
Bhurtel and Aasif went onto forge 65 runs for the opening wicket, before Shardul Thakur removed the former in the 10th over. Despite a good start from Nepal, regular wickets hurt their momentum and they were reduced to 134/5 inside 30 overs.
And soon after, rain came to play spoilsport but that was a short delay, and play resumed shortly. There were a couple of more rain breaks, the last of which was the longest, with play being halted for almost an hour.
Nepal were 178/6 from 37.5 overs when rain returned, with Airee and Kami the unbeaten batters at the time.
Once play resumed, Sompal Kami continued his resistance despite losing Dipendra. He then forged a 34-run stand with Sandeep Lamichhane, before being dismissed by Shami in the 48th over.
At that time, Nepal were 228/8, and it was just a matter of time before India wrapped up their innings for 230.
Siraj and Jadeja finished with three wickets each, while Shami, Shardul and Hardik got one each.
Brief scores: Nepal 230 all out in 48.2 overs (Aasif Sheikh 58, Sompal Kami 48; Mohammed Siraj 3/61, Ravindra Jadeja 3/40) lost to India 147/0 in 20.1 overs (Rohit Sharma 74*, Shubman Gill 67*) by 10 wickets (DLS method).
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