Nepal made history in Sharjah by clinching a series win over the West Indies.
Two days earlier, they had won the first match of three in a T20 international series that is designed to help them prepare for bigger challenges to follow.
That was their first win against a side from the Test-playing elite.
They consolidated that triumph by going on to seal the series at the next available opportunity, with a game still to play on Tuesday.
After a fine century stand by Sundeep Jora and Aasif Sheikh, Nepal’s bowlers were then too canny for the West Indies batters.
They closed out a 90-run win, to the delight of hundreds who had come to support them at the UAE’s oldest cricket venue, which they are using as a home ground while the main stadium in Kathmandu is under renovation.
For the second time in three days, Sandeep Lamichhane was conspicuous by his absence from the starting XI for Nepal.
The leg-spinner is Nepal’s best known player, and would be familiar to a number of the opposition, too, having played Caribbean Premier League cricket in the past.
His bowling would have been ideally suited to the wicket in Sharjah. He is still with the squad in Dubai, yet was omitted from the match day XV again.
Stuart Law, the coach, termed his absence “personal issues” in the first match. Reportedly, those issues relate to a dispute he is having related to a sponsorship agreement with the team’s shirt-front sponsors.
He has been retained as part of the tour party in Dubai, and it is hoped he will travel to the T20 World Cup Qualifier in Oman which follows this series.
In his absence, Nepal have played like a well-drilled outfit. Having defended 148 in the first match on Saturday night, this time around they had 25 more to play with.
They achieved it by playing to perfection the game plan their coach has set out. Law has pointed out that his side are not stacked with natural six-hitters in the same way that West Indies, for example, are.
As such, he has designed a method based on savvy shot-placement and running between the wickets, thereby earning the right to fire for the boundary later in the innings.
They hit nine sixes in their total of 173-6, the majority in a late blitz led by Jora. The 23-year-old batter sent five across the boundary rope in a thrilling innings of 63 from 39 balls.
He was the dominant batter in a partnership worth 100 from 11 overs with Sheikh, who batted all through the innings to finish 68 not out.
Rohit Paudel, the Nepal captain, had said after the first game he felt 160 was par on this wicket. As such, he must have been thrilled with the target his side had set this time around. Even more so given the start they made with the ball.
They had West Indies 5-2 in the fourth over. When Kyle Mayers, the Barbadian IPL star, fell in the eighth over, the Caribbean side stumbled to 23-3.
There was no way back from there, as Nepal were just too good with the ball and in the field.
Mohammed Aadil was the pick of the attack, with four wickets, while Gulshan Jha’s two brilliant boundary line catches also hastened the Test nation’s slide to 83 all out.
