“We spoke with Rohit and Virat ….”: Nepal captain Rohit Paudel

Kandy [Sri Lanka]: After Nepal ended their Asia Cup 2023 campaign with a loss against India by 10 wickets, Nepal captain Rohit Paudel revealed that his team talked with Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and batter Virat Kohli which was a useful conversation.

Blistering batting display from Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma helped India defeat Nepal by 10 wickets via the DLS method in a rain-curtailed match in the Asia Cup 2023 here at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Monday.

In the post-match press conference, Nepal captain said, “We talked with Rohit and Virat and they gave lots of experience to us and this will be very useful for us.”

Paudel also said that he was satisfied with the performance of his team, however, he thought that 260-270 would have been a better score.

“Overall I am happy with the performance of the boys especially with the bat. I think the openers did a very good job. In the middle order, we could have done better. I thought somewhere around 260-270 would have been a good score. If you talk overall, I am happy with the performance.”

Indian openers batted till the end and one other Indian batter got the opportunity to bat. Paudel was a little disappointed that they did not get the opportunity to ball against Virat
“We did not get the opportunity to ball against Virat as both openers batted till last.”

When asked about the difference between the India and Pakistan match, the Nepal captain said, “It mostly depends upon the condition, when we played against Pakistan, I thought it was most favourable for the medium pacer and we took the opportunity from that.

Today’s condition was more challenging because of dew as the ball was not gripping. But the credit goes to Shubman and Rohit bhai, the way they batted.”

Coming to the match, India opted to bowl first. Nepal posted a valiant 230/10 in 48.1 overs in their first-ever match against India.

Nepal started well with an opening stand of 65 runs between Kushal Bhurtel (38 in 25 balls) and Kushal Bhurtel, who went on to score 58 in 97 balls, with eight fours. But after the opening stand, Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj reduced Nepal to 144/6. But a 50-run stand between Dipendra Singh (29 in 25 balls) and Sompal Kami helped Nepal reach near the 200-run mark. A late partnership between Kami and Sandeep Lammichhane (9) helped Nepal reach a respectable total.

Jadeja (3/40) and Siraj (3/61) were the pick of the bowlers for India. Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya got a wicket each.

India’s chase for 231 runs was interrupted by rain at 17/0 and the revised target was 145 in 23 overs. Indian openers skipper Rohit Sharma (74 in 59 balls, with six fours and five sixes) and Shubman Gill (67 in 62 balls with eight fours and a six) made light work of the target, winning the match with 17 balls to go and full 10 wickets in hand.

Skipper Rohit Sharma won the ‘Player of the Match’ award.

With this, India has secured a total of three points in their two group-stage matches and advanced to the Super 4 stage. India will face arch-rival Pakistan in their Super Four match on Sunday.