Fans, supporters welcome Nepal cricket team after their Asia Cup campaign
Sep 06, 2023
Kathmandu [Nepal], September 6 : Supporters with brass bands and garlands were waiting for hours to welcome the Nepal cricket team, who played their debut Asia Cup matches, as the players landed in Kathmandu on Wednesday.
Officials from the Cricket Association of Nepal along with fellow athletes had reached the airport to welcome the team who faced India and Pakistan - cricket giants of One Day International- in their Asia Cup 2023 clashes.
The 17-member squad returned to Nepal from Sri Lanka- the neutral venue of the Asia Cup where they played against India and lost by 10 wickets. None of the players made any statement to the media after landing at the airport.
As the team walked out of the terminal, fans and supporters swarmed the players asking for selfies and handshakes. The team in the past six months has scaled the height of success to Asia Cup from the edge of losing the ODI status.
Back in February, Nepal was on the brink of losing its ODI status which it gained in 2018. Nepal was lying at the bottom of the World Cup Super League 2 points table but the Rhinos made trumping sounds to reach the top-notch Associate members Namibia, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and the UAE not once, but on multiple occasions.
In the post-match press conference on September 4, Nepal captain Rohit Paudel said, "We talked with Rohit and Virat and they gave us lots of experience 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," Paudel said.
Nepal has a fantastic opportunity to play India in the currently taking place Asia Cup 2023. The team led by Rohit Paudel had several memorable experiences despite not making it to the Super Fours. One such instance occurred during their game with India. Opener Aasif Sheikh played outstanding innings and scored a memorable half-century.
