Nepal record historic win at Lord's

Back in 1816, the East India Company, that had annexed most parts of the subcontinent, tried their luck in furthering their rule to the Kingdom of Nepal. Not too pleased with the move of the British annexing their bordering states, the Anglo-Nepal war ensued and the mightier men from the west were soundly beaten. The attackers had underestimated the might of the Nepali, and eventually ended up signing the Sugauli Treaty, under which Nepal were given back portions of present-day Sikkim and Terai.

Apart from the fact that the war led to stories of Gorkha's valour gaining fame, it also resulted in a lasting friendship between the two countries, with Nepal offering support to the British during the two World Wars.
On Wednesday (July 20), 200 years down the line, in a match that was played to honour the friendship between the two countries, Nepal - cricketing amateurs - defeated Marylebone Cricket Club - the guardians of cricket - in their own game at their self-confessed Mecca, Lord's.

Yet again, the men from Britain possibly underestimated the might of Nepal.

A crowd of over 9,000 had gathered to witness the match, the louder portion of which had come out in support of the visiting side. However, due to the rules of the ground, efforts to unfurl the Nepal flag were turned down. The proceeds of the match, 10 Sterling Pounds per ticket, were set to be given as an aid for rebuilding work in Nepal after last year's earthquake.

Paras Khadka, Nepal's captain, won the toss and elected to bat.

John Stevenson, MCC head of cricket, had vouched that a strong line-up that will play an 'entertaining brand of cricket in the future' would be put up against Nepal. But as it turned out, their best weren't good enough against the Asian side that is making strong progress among Associate Nations in cricket.

Anil Mandal got Nepal off to a good start, stroking two boundaries off the first over. However, with a few wickets falling early on in the match, the visitors adopted a cautious approach. The scoring rate came down, but a few steady partnerships helped them keep the momentum going.

Gyanendra Malla (39) and Khadka (30) helped Nepal go past 100 with eight wickets in hand. However, they lost the plot soon after the duo was dismissed. Left-arm spinner Mark Reingold strangled the scoring rate from thereon. After looking well-set to go past the 250-run mark, Nepal were eventually restricted to 217 for 8.

MCC got off to a slow start in the chase, playing out consecutive maiden overs. By the 25th over, the required run-rate had crept up over a run a ball. Barring George Adair, who scored a well-paced 122-ball century, the rest of the batting order failed to provide the kind of 'entertaining brand of cricket' that Stevenson had promised. Steve Clarke and Richard Wilkinson were the only other batsmen to record a two-digit score in the innings.

The lower order crumbled quickly under the pressure of an ever-creeping required rate and the hosts folded up for 176, handing Nepal a 41-run win.

"Boys were excited, a little bit nervous as well - you can understand, playing at Lord's just doesn't happen everyday," Khadka, the elated skipper, said following the win. "I think we managed to hold ourselves pretty well. Everybody contributed bits and pieces, overall it was very good. Batting, we were 20-30 runs short but the boys kept digging in, the wicket wasn't that easy and the bowlers were very, very disciplined and that was one of the key factors for us to win today."

Pubudu Dassanayake too was joyous with the win and added, "These boys, the amount of work they put in, they deserve this, to come and play a game here. They make a lot of sacrifices and fight always."

In war or joy, history repeated itself.