Singapore climbed Mount Everest and defeated Nepal en route to winning the ICC T20 World Cup Asia Final
It was a beautiful Sunday morning and everything was ready for a winner’s final between hosts Singapore and favorites Nepal before the tournament. Both teams had great support in the park as vociferous fans cheered their heroes and flags wafted in the air.
Singapore won the pitch and decided to hit a surface that looked great for hitting.
Singapore Opener R Rohan (49 of 33) and S Chandramohan (8 of 7) walked confidently into the park preparing for the challenge. Karan KC managed to score the first goal in the second round with just 10 runs on the board.
Tim David, Singapore star player, entered the park in the fall of the first wicket, determined to take control of the Singapore innings. He had a big one ahead of him and he delivered on the big occasion. He hit 77 out of 43 balls and teamed with Rohan to a stinging 89-member partnership that took the momentum out of Nepal. In the final equation, their runs were crucial.
Manpreet Singh (42 of 27) and Anish Param (9 of 6) finished the innings in Singapore with a good overall win of 191 to 6 in their 20 overs. The attack of the batsmen from Singapore was relentless.
A Bohara took four gates in its spell of four overs and Sompal Kami was economically conceded only 15 runs under his spell of 3 overs.
The chase had begun, and the captain of Nepal, Paras Khadka (12 out of 10), announced his arrival and Nepal’s intention to win eleven. Together with G Malla (39 of 21) they wanted to bring the game to Singapore.
The Singapore captain, Amjad Mahboob, interfered and made a decisive call to defeat himself. At his first delivery, he was able to remove his counterpart. A clever change made the followers of Singapore into a rage and the Nepal followers emptied as a Nepal shelter.
S Vijayakumar, who claimed 4/25 of his four overs after dropping a difficult chance from G Malla, made his seventh appearance and immediately made up for lost opportunity by bowling with an outlier for a break. Already the next one over the great Sharad Vesawkar was caught by Janak Prakash from the bowling of Anantha Krishna at the long line.
This catch will be remembered by everyone present and considered one of the best holds to date in live broadcasting. He jumps high in the air, takes the ball with one hand and lands with the perimeter rope, which is only millimeters away. Nepal was 62 for 3 and the required run rate rose alarmingly fast, with the three main batsmen back in the dugout.
DS Airee (22 of 23) tried with great heart to start a defensive stroke with the tail, but was unable to recover the ever-increasing gap between the required runs and the available balls.
V Baskaran and Janak Prakash, in combination with the outstanding field performance in Singapore, saw Nepal defeated 82 times in the 15th round.
The entire monkey house in Singapore burst with joy and the crowd sang singapore … singapore …. singapore as a winning team received the ovation of a hero.
It was a wonderful week of action-packed T20 cricket that ended when Singapore was named ICC T20 World Champion in the Asian Final.
