Nepal captain Rohit Paudel spoke on his on-field altercation with Bangladesh’s Tanzim Hasan Sakib during their T20 World Cup 2024 on June 17, Monday.
Tanzim was the star of the show as Bangladesh won by 21 runs, taking 4 for 7 in 4 overs to shred Nepal's top order. Paudel, who was a victim of the pacer's ferocious spell, did have an encounter with him.
Things got heated between Rohit Paudel and Tanzim Sakib in the second innings of the contest as Nepal attempted to chase down 107 runs. The third over had just ended, and the umpire had signaled for the players to change ends. That's when Rohit and Sakib's altercation happened.
Sakib was spotted eyeing the Nepal captain, who appeared unaware at first. Instead of responding to the umpire's call, the Bangladeshi pacer continued to go towards Rohit Paudel. Sakib was in full beast mode throughout the heated argument.
Tanzim Sakib and Rohit Paudel approached face to face and began pointing fingers at one other. It was about to boil over when the on-field Umpire intervened and ejected both of them from the argument.
Here is the video:
Speaking after the loss, Paudel touched upon the subject of this altercation with Sakib. The Nepal captain lauded Tanzim for his session, claiming he outplayed them with the new ball and bowled in the correct spots.
Paudel maintained he had no problems with Tanzim and claimed the pacer sought to get him fired up by encouraging him to go after his bowling. The Nepal captain claimed he just urged him to return to the mark and keep bowling.
"No, I think Tanzim bowled well. Especially he, I would say he outplayed us with the new ball. He bowled well because the wicket was very challenging. And I think he bowled in the right areas. And he asked us difficult questions. So, there's nothing between us. Just he came and he told me to hit. And I said, go and bowl. Nothing else," said Paudel in the press conference.
Nepal's batting completely crumbled in the chase of 106 runs, folding for 85 runs only. Paudel said they failed to step up as a batting unit on the day.
"We bowled really well throughout the tournament and I think as a batting unit we didn't step up. Especially I think Bangladesh bowled really well and I think as a batting unit we batted really poor. There's no shame to accept that and as a top-order batsman, we could have taken that responsibility and scored that 107 runs. I think as a batting unit we failed," said Paudel.
