For a brief moment when Dipendra Singh got stuck into Shivam Dube in the 12th over of the chase, India would have felt Nepal breathing down behind it. Dipendra, who scored a nine-ball fifty against Mongolia last week, put Dube over the fence for three successive deliveries and was en-route to emulating his five consecutive sixes from that game. From needing 104 from 42 balls, Nepal now required 86 from 44, prompting skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and Arshdeep Singh to converge towards the bowler’s mark.
Dube, who has previously conceded 34 runs in a T20I over, would have had nightmares, too, bowling in a field which had only 42-meter boundaries.
Luckily for him, Dipendra failed to put away a full toss and could only manage three runs from the next two balls before Ravi Bishnoi had the Nepal batter holing out in the deep in the next over. Then Arshdeep removed Sundeep Jora (29 off 12 balls) after being carted for two sixes, which ultimately ended Nepal’s hopes and paced the way for India’s 23-run win in the quarterfinal at the Pingfeng Cricket Campus on October 3.
