Nepal beat Canada by 6 wickets in final T20 World Cup warm-up

KATHMANDU: The Nepal national cricket team has shown strong form ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup, defeating Canada by six wickets in their second and final warm-up match on Thursday.

Anchored by a crucial partnership between Aasif Sheikh and Sundeep Jora, Nepal secured a confident victory at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Nepal remains unbeaten in their warm-up games, having earlier defeated the UAE by seven wickets on Tuesday.

The team will now kick off their World Cup campaign against England on Sunday.

Notably, in their last World Cup warm-up in the United States two years ago, Canada had beaten Nepal by 63 runs in Dallas.

Chasing a target of 162, Nepal reached the score with two overs to spare.

Opener Aarif scored 58 runs, while Sundeep Jora contributed 44.

The pair put together an 84-run partnership off just 52 balls for the second wicket.

Aasif played a quickfire 29-ball innings, hitting six boundaries and three sixes, while Jora struck four boundaries and one six in his 30-ball effort.

Opener Kushal Bhurtel added 12 runs off 11 balls, including a four and a six, before being dismissed.

With regular captain Rohit Paudel absent due to the “Captain’s Day” event in Mumbai, vice-captain Dipendra Singh Airey led the team.

He remained unbeaten on nine off six balls, having struck a boundary.

Gulshan Jha also played a quick 31-run unbeaten innings from 25 balls, while Lokesh Bam contributed five runs.

For Canada, Jaskaran Singh, Saad Bin Zafar, and Ajayveer Hundal claimed one wicket each.

Earlier, winning the toss, Canada opted to bat and posted 161 for six in their 20 overs.

Opener Navnit Dhaliwal top-scored with 41 runs off 36 balls, including a four and three sixes.

His opening partner, Yuvraj Sharma, made seven. Kanwarpal Tatgur contributed 25 runs from 24 balls with two boundaries and one six, while Nicholas Kirtan scored 10 and Harsh Thaker 8 runs.

Jaskaran Singh hit three sixes in his 21-run innings off 11 balls, and Shreyas Movha remained unbeaten on 38 from 19 balls with two fours and three sixes.

Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhane and Kushal Bhurtel took two wickets each, with Sandeep conceding 14 runs in four overs and Kushal 26 in three. Sompal Kami and Nandan Yadav took one wicket each.

Nepal is scheduled to fly from Chennai to Mumbai on Friday.

Canada, meanwhile, lost their first warm-up match against Italy by 10 runs in Chennai and will play their opening World Cup game against South Africa in Ahmedabad on Monday.

This marks Canada’s second consecutive T20 World Cup appearance, having won all six matches in the American qualifying region to secure their spot.