On Wednesday, September 27, in Hangzhou, China, Nepal and Mongolia played in the opening match of the Men’s T20I cricket competition for the Asian Games 2023.
Choosing to bowl first after winning the toss at the Pingfeng Campus Cricket Field was Minnows Mongolia. The openers for Nepal, who entered the competition fresh off their first Asia Cup campaign, put up 42 runs in the first five overs. Kushal Malla and captain Rohit Paudel increased the stakes with a mind-boggling 193-run partnership in just 65 balls after they were both eliminated.
In T20I cricket, Malla hit the fastest century in just 34 balls. The previous record-holders were David Miller and Rohit Sharma, who each scored a ton in 35 balls. The 19-year-old scored eight fours and 12 sixes throughout his quick innings to end undefeated on 137 off 50 balls.
One of the many records Nepal broke during the match was this one. All-rounder Dipendra Singh Airee entered the fray after Paudel was removed for a fun 27-ball 61. By scoring the fastest fifty in T20I cricket in terms of balls, the 23-year-old cemented his place in cricket lore. Dipendra needed just nine balls to reach his fifty-run mark. By scoring a 12-ball fifty against England in the 2007 T20 World Cup, he shattered Yuvraj Singh’s 16-year-old record. The teenage batsman joined Malla for a 55-run stand off 11 balls while remaining unbeaten on 52 off 10 balls.
Nepal recorded the highest T20I total with a massive 314/3 in their 20 overs. The previous record, 278/3, belonged to Afghanistan, who accomplished the feat in 2019 against Ireland. In their innings, Paudel and company smashed a staggering 26 sixes. This broke the previous record of 22 sixes hit by Afghanistan in the aforementioned match against Ireland as the most sixes ever hit in a T20I innings.
Mongolia was bowled out for just 41 runs in 13.1 overs while attempting to chase the absurd score, and Nepal triumphed by an astounding 273 runs. In T20I cricket, this victory margin is the largest in terms of runs.
India
