Nepal: Nepal has created history with the men’s team becoming the first to score more than 300 runs in a T20 international through a winning match against Mongolia at the Asian Games.
Nepal scored 314 runs for three wickets in their 20 overs in Hangzhou, breaking the previous highest score of 278 for three by Afghanistan against Ireland in 2019. Kushal Malla, batting at number three, set the pace by cracking the quickest T20 international century with just 34 balls.
Malla was followed by Dipendra Singh Airee, who finished the innings with 52 in just 10 balls, with eight of them hit out of the park for a six. Airee’s strike rate of 520 is also the best in a T20I innings. Furthermore, Airee reached his 50 off nine balls, making another world record by beating India’s Yuvraj Singh’s 2007 record against England.
Mongolia, whose women’s team were dismissed for just 15 last week in the Asian Games, were bowled out by Nepal for only 41.
When Malla came in to bat, Nepal were 42 for one in 4.5 overs. The 19-year-old’s 50-ball 137, along with Airee and Paudel’s fifties, saw them score 272 runs in 15 overs by the end of Nepal’s innings.
Malla scored 12 sixes and eight fours at a strike rate of 274 and also became the second youngest batter to score a century in men’s T20Is at the age of 19 years and 206 days. The previous record for the quickest T20 century was held by South Africa’s David Miller, who scored it in 35 balls against Bangladesh in 2017.
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