Maiden ODI win ‘shows character’ of the Nepal team – Paras Khadka

Nepal’s first-ever one-day international win in a low-scoring thriller over the Netherlands proved their hunger to succeed, said captain Paras Khadka.

Nepal’s historic two-match ODI series ended all square after they pulled off a last-ball victory in the second match by one run on Friday, 3 August in Amstelveen.

Of course, it wasn’t the first Nepal had left it late in a big match – they are called the Cardiac Kids, aren’t they?
In the ICC World Cricket League Division Two clash earlier this year, Nepal and Canada needed just one win to seal a spot in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018, which took place in Zimbabwe in March.

A brilliant 51-run stand for the last wicket between Karan KC and Sandeep Lamichhane took Nepal to a dramatic one-wicket win then. It wasn’t the first time they had done something similar either.

Their prize – a ticket to the qualifiers.Khadka, the Nepal captain who held his nerve in the last over and ran Fred Klaassen out on the last ball off his own balling was as delighted as any captain would be with the performance.

“It feels great, because of how we have come from Division Two and world qualifiers and to register our first win,” Khadka told ESPNcricinfo after the win. “The way we did today shows a lot of character within the team.”As a team, we are obviously very, very hungry and we want to perform, we want to be there and it is just the beginning and I’ve said this before as well.

“To the fans, I know it is very hard to get that nail-biting finish. We knew it was just a matter of one ball and it went down to the last ball; he hit it, hit the stumps, I got the ricochet, all I knew was that I had to pick up the stump and the game would be done.”Khadka, 30, is now backing his boys to move from strength to strength.

“Fortune favours the brave and I’ve been saying this for a while and for us it is very important that we keep improving from here,” he said.

The support from the fans motivated Nepal and the captain gave a large share of the credit for the team’s success to them. “I think the fans are incredible to stay in whole day, not only in the Netherlands, it’s everywhere in the world that we go – except for few places – that our fans have managed to come over and support us,” he said.

“The fans are very, very vocal, we can hear them as we are batting and bowling on the field and that really motivates us. For us to get our first victory, to celebrate it among them, adds it up and like I said more victories, more champagnes, and more victory laps, more cheering and lot more smiles.” ICC