Kathmandu: Abhinash Bohra, who returned to the national team after a year and a half and played the 19th Asiad, set a record for the first Nepali bowler to take 6 wickets in a single match in T20 international cricket.
In the second match of Group A held at the Zhejiang University of Technology Cricket Field in Hangzhou, China, Abhinash performed a record when Nepal beat Maldives by 138 runs.
Chasing a target of 213 runs, Maldives were bowled out for 74 runs before 2 balls. After winning two consecutive matches, Nepal became the winner of Group A and entered the quarterfinals.
Abhinash, who became the first bowler to take 6 wickets for Nepal, made 2 opportunities to take hat-trick wickets. But he was deprived of that twice.
The target was to take 5 wickets. It feels very good,” Abhinash said after the record-breaking performance. “If there was a hat-trick, it would have been better, but there was no hat-trick. The hat-trick was missed 2 times in the first and last.
Although he was known as a T20 specialist bowler, Abhinash could not make a permanent place in the national team.
He played in the triangular T20 series involving Malaysia and Papua New Guinea in Kirtipur in April last year and then played for Nepal for the first time.
Nepal kept fast bowler Karan KC out and Vinod Bhandari was played as the first choice On Sunday.
In the first match, Abhinash, who played as the fourth bowler after Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Gulshan Jha, took 2 wickets with 2 runs in 2 overs while keeping 1 maiden.
Abhinash took 3-3 wickets in the sixth and last over against Maldives.
Taking wickets in the third and fourth balls of the sixth over, he came close to a hat-trick but missed. But taking a wicket in the sixth ball, he took 3 wickets in one over. Then he came close to a hat-trick again by taking wickets in the first and second balls of the last over. But Balam was deprived of the hat-trick as he could not take the third wicket. However, taking a wicket in the fourth ball, he took 6 wickets in one match.
After taking two wickets in the match against Mongolia, he felt that he had found his old rhythm after the second match. There was not much feeling when playing the first match. Today, it felt as if Purano was back in rhythm.
Abhinash, who made his T20I debut against UAE in 2019, made the playoffs in the first series. After that, he also made his ODI debut in February 2020. But he is a bowler more suited to T20Is than ODIs.
Having played only 2 ODIs, he has taken 48 wickets in 37 T-20Is.
He is the third highest wicket taker for Nepal in T20Is. Sandeep Lamichhane has taken the most wickets with 88 and Karan KC with 62. Sompal Kami, who has been playing for Nepal for a decade, has taken 40 wickets.
Captain Rohit praised Abhinash’s bowling. Abhinash Dai kept throwing yorkers in today’s game. It was very good bowling.
He having played against two relatively weak teams in the group stage, Nepal now has to play against one of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh in the quarterfinals.
The batting unit has done well. Not everyone gets to bat in difficult situations in the coming game. They won the toss and chose to bat so that everyone could bat before the quarterfinals. Everyone got an opportunity”, he said.
He said that his and the team’s goal is to play the game with the mindset of scoring runs and contributing to the team. He said that it would be good if they could maintain this rhythm in the upcoming games.
Rohit said that Nepal is excited to play with a big team in the quarterfinals and it is also a challenge. “We are very excited. There is also a challenge. Anything can happen in T20.
This wicket is challenging,” he said. “Our bowling is good. We batted well and we can challenge any team. We are very excited and ready for the game.
Rohit said that since Nepal has played two matches, it will be an advantage because they know about the wickets. “We have played two games. The advantage is that we have experience in how to play wickets, but we are not over excited. We will follow the processes.
Rohit said that Nepal has not won any medal in the 19th Asiad till the ninth day and came with the mentality of winning medals from cricket and the goal is to win medals as it happens.
