It was supposed to be Nepal’s big day back at the T20 World Cup.
Thousands of Nepalese fans had filled the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas long before their opening game of tournament against the Netherlands on Tuesday.
Even the threat of rain did not dampen the spirit of Nepal fans who had waited a long time to see their players on the world stage.
But the partisan support did not count for much in the end as the Netherlands showed why they are considered a dangerous side in T20 cricket, ultimately easing to a six-wicket win.
Nepal batted first after rain forced the start of the match to be delayed. The pitch at the Grand Prairie Stadium had more than enough help for seamers and spinners and that proved to be Nepal’s undoing.
Seamer Vivian Kingma got the bowl to swing a mile after pitching, forcing openers Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh to manufacture shots at the other end.
Left-arm spinner Tim Pringle (3-20) was the beneficiary as he snared Sheikh and Anil Sah cheaply.
There was a slight revival after Rohit Paudel hit a brisk 35 off 37 balls, but the Nepal captain soon found himself running out of partners.
Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee and Sompal Kami all fell in quick succession to leave Nepal struggling on 66-6 after 13.2 overs, and when Paudel was dismissed by Pringle, the final three wickets fell quickly as Nepal were bundled out for 106 in the final over.
Logan van Beek took 3-18 runs while Pringle finished with 3-20 off four overs. Paul van Meekeren bagged 2-19 runs while Bas de Leede finished on 2-22.
A target of 107 was never going to be challenging but Nepal tried their best to make a match out of it.
Seamer Kami got the early breakthrough but Max O’Dowd (54 not out) and Vikramjit Singh (22) steadied the ship. Sloppy fielding from Nepal allowed the Dutch to keep the scoreboard ticking, but the challenging surface did not allow the Netherlands to get too far ahead.
A lucky run out of Sybrand Engelbrecht at the non-striker’s end made things interesting as the Dutch needed 34 from 36 balls at one stage.
Then, seamer Abinash Bohhara castled keeper Scott Edwards to reduce the chasing side to 80-4.
The defining moment of the match came in the 18th over when Nepal captain Paudel dropped a regulation chance of top scorer O’Dowd off the bowling of Kami in the deep. They needed 18 from 17 balls and from there the Netherlands wasted no time in finishing off the chase.
O’Dowd finished unbeaten on 54 from 48 balls with four boundaries and a six, holding the innings together.
The pulsating contest in Dallas was in stark contrast to the no show in Barbados where England’s clash against Scotland was abandoned due to rain.
Scotland openers George Munsey (41 not out) and Michael Jones (45 not out) batted superbly to take the team to 90-0 in a rain-interrupted innings of 10 overs at the Kensington Oval.
Because Scotland's innings was halted, for nearly two hours, on 51-0 off 6.2 overs, it meant England were left with a revised target of 109 in 10 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
But before England could begin their reply, on a ground where they won the 2010 T20 World Cup final, a fresh downpour led the umpires to abandon the match, with both teams receiving a point each.
