India and Nepal clashed for the first time in ODI cricket on September 4, at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy, Sri Lanka in the 5th match of the Asia Cup 2023.
Nepal had lost their first game of the tournament to Pakistan in Multan, while India’s clash against Pakistan was rained out in Kandy after India had batted first.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to field first to give his bowlers some game time. India made one change as Mohammad Shami replaced Jasprit Bumrah.
Nepal had a solid start as openers Kushal Bhurtel (38) and Aasif Sheikh (58) added 65 runs for the first wicket. India gave lots of chances to Nepal batters as three catches were dropped in the first five overs.
But then wickets started to tumble amidst multiple rain interruptions as Ravindra Jadeja ran through the middle order with single-digit wickets of Bhim Sharki, Rohit Paudel, and Kushal Malla.
India looked good to wrap up the Nepal innings around 175, but Gulshan Jha (23), Dipendra Singh Airee (29), and Sompal Kami (48) took their team to a final total of 230.
For India, Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja picked three wickets each.
India’s innings was curtailed to 23 overs with a 145-run target as rain delayed the start of their innings by quite some time.
When the match resumed, Indian openers Rohit Sharma (74*) and Shubman Gill (67*) made short work of the target and took the team to a 10-wicket win via DLS method, scoring 147 without losing any batter in 20.1 overs.
With this win, India qualified for the Super 4s stage along with Pakistan.
The cricket fraternity reacted to India’s qualification for the next stage of Asia Cup 2023 on social media.
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