India 147 for 0 (Rohit 74*, Gill 67*) beaten Nepal 230 (Aasif 58, Kami 48, Jadeja 3-40, Siraj 3-61) by ten wickets via DLS method

It was, however, short-lived for Nepal, THE Rohit fired an opening salvo after a long rain break. He scooped, swept and reverse-swept his way to a 39-ball half-century. Gill, who had belted Kami for three fours before the rain break, rode largely in Rohit’s wake at the restart. By the time Gill reached his fifty, India were just 29 away from victory. Rohit and Gill finished with 17 balls and all ten wickets to spare.

India were not as dominant in the early exchanges. Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli and wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan took three catches in the first five overs, allowing the Nepali batters to take over.

The Nepalese batters were more comfortable facing pace, driving languorously into the ‘V’ and also advancing boldly into the ‘V’ behind the wicket. Bhurtel, who was pardoned twice, punished India with his offensive intent and enterprise. He arguably played the shot of the day by hooking Mohammed Siraj over square leg and off the ground. Siraj kept driving the ball into the deck and kept running away.

All-rounder Shardul Thakur provided India with the first breakthrough in the final over of the powerplay, but he was also lackluster in his short spell of four overs.

Left-arm spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav worked in tandem to help India take control. Jadeja proved difficult to get away with with his turn – and lack thereof – claiming figures of 3 for 40 in his ten overs. It was only in Jadeja’s eighth over that Nepal scored a boundary off him. Kuldeep wasn’t among the wickets on Monday, but he was almost as economical as Jadeja with his stock-ball and error on a useful surface.

Dipendra Singh Airee and Kami then showed that they can also compete with Indian superstars. Kami, in particular, fielded the short balls of Siraj and Hardik Pandya during his 48 off 56 balls while Airee contributed 29 off 25 balls.

Gill’s calm and Rohit’s storm then detonated Nepal’s attack in a truncated chase.