India’s premier all-rounder, Hardik Pandya was in for a laugh as he saw the umpire fall for a false rain scare twice.
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India managed to win the toss and chose to bowl and it looked like Nepal’s innings could be interrupted as much as three times. One after the toss, the second in the 30th over and lastly just before the 35th over was completed.
The funny thing is that despite the play being halted in these three instances, it turned out to be false alarms.
A light drizzle came when Mohammed Siraj was bowling the 30th over as the play was stopped and the groundsman came onto the field to protect the pitch. Oddly enough the rains disappeared as soon as the groundsmen reached the pitch prompting them to go back.
A funny back and forth ensured and finally the rains started pouring in at the 38th over, forcing everyone to leave the pitch when Nepal were at 178/8.
During the initial part of the innings, India’s bowling attack was all over the place with the side dropping 3 catches. Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli and Ishan Kishan dropped a catch each which allowed the Nepal openers to gain some momentum.
Others were also equally criticised with the likes of Shardul Thakur and others not saving the boundaries appropriately.
Eventually, it was Shardul who managed to get the breakthrough with the opener, Kushan Bhurtel nicking one to the wicket-keeper, Ishan Kishan.
Jadeja also managed to pick up three wickets in the game as he equalled former Indian pacer, Irfan Pathan for the most wickets picked by an Indian bowler in Asia Cup (ODI).
It was the number eight batter for Nepal, Sompal Kami, who managed to hold the innings together in the end and allowed his side to post a decent total to defend against. Kami managed to score 48 runs to help Nepal set a total of 230 runs.
But Duckworth-Lewis came into play as rain interrupted play yet again and the match was eventually shortened to 23 overs where team India had to chase 145.
The opening batting duo of the Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill managed to chase down the total with relative ease as the side managed to qualify for the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup 2023.