The cricket community was taken aback on this day in 2023 when Nepal, a rapidly developing Asian country, made history on September 27, 2023. Notably, the Himalayan nation was competing in the Asian Games, held in Hangzhou, China, versus Mongolia.
Remarkably, this was also the first intracontinental cricket tournament to use the T20I format, which is often reserved for other sports. Nonetheless, a few tiny countries expressed interest in picking up the sport and fielding an international team in an effort to popularise cricket throughout the continent. As a result, many records were broken throughout the game, making it one of the most significant occasions in cricket history.
In the world of Twenty20 International Cricket, Nepal set a new standard, yet the match ended up being quite one-sided. The Everest country proceeded to achieve the greatest team score in T20I history. When they batted first, they scored an incredible 26 sixes, with the majority of the runs coming from captain Rohit Paudel (61 off 27), Deependra Airee (52* off 10), and Kushal Malla (137* off 50). Nepal thus achieved an incredible 314/3 on the board in their 20-over limit.
Kushal Malla became fastest Centuries in T20Is
Among the noteworthy performers for Nepal was the 19-year-old batter who broke all century marks to secure a spot on the most exclusive list a batter could only dream of. Kushal Malla was so furious that in his 50 balls, he hammered 12 sixes and 8 fours to stay undefeated at 137*. Consequently, he broke the record shared by South Africa’s David Miller, Team India’s Rohit Sharma, and the Czech Republic’s Sudesh Wickramasekara by reaching the 100-run milestone in just 34 balls. In just 35 balls, they all achieved the fastest century.
Fastest Fifty by Dipendra Airee
In addition to Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, an all-round player, also made rapid rushes for amusement. He reached the 50-run threshold in just nine balls and was still undefeated at 52. During his exciting knock, the young player hit eight sixes. The previous record for the fastest half-century was held by Yuvraj Singh, the former world champion and all-rounder from India. Singh accomplished this amazing accomplishment at the first-ever T20 World Cup, which took place in South Africa. Furthermore, he lit the stage on fire by hitting England’s Stuart Broad with six straight sixes.
Mongolia’s record defeat in T20 history
The novices’ cricketing endeavours got off to the worst conceivable start. To say the game was unfair to one side would be an understatement. The cause? Mongolia scored a pitiful 41 runs, and it took them 13.1 overs (79 balls) to reach the 40-run threshold. The most astounding aspect of their innings was that Nepal gave up more extra runs collectively than the Mongolian batters scored as a team. The team scored a total of 23 runs in extras, but only 18 runs overall when the extras were taken out.
In addition, the player who led the Mongolian team in scoring had contributed 10 runs, while the other half of the squad (five hitters) returned to the pavilion without scoring any further runs. Consequently, Mongolia lost the match by an incredible 273 runs, setting a new record for the largest margin of defeat in cricket history.
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In 2019, Czech Republic defeated Turkey by 257 runs to break the previous record. It is easy to argue, then, that one of the most memorable cricket matches in history was the Asian Games encounter.
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