Lalit Rajbanshi took a wicket in each of his first three overs, and Nepal beat Afghanistan by five wickets

Afghanistan were 16 for 3 inside five overs, and all three wickets belonged to Lalit Rajbanshi. The left-arm spinner bowled three overs in the powerplay, took a wicket in each, and finished with 3 for 13 from his four. Kushal Bhurtel followed with 4 for 21, and Afghanistan finished on 102 for 7.

Nepal chased it down in 17.2 overs at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, winning by five wickets in their first match of the Asian Games men’s cricket competition.

Rajbanshi’s powerplay

Afghanistan won the toss and chose to bat. Hassan Eisakhil was bowled for a two-ball duck, Mohammad Akram was caught by Lokesh Bam for 2, and Karim Janat was bowled for 9. That was the top three gone with 16 on the board.

Faisal Khan Ahmadzai and Najibullah Zadran put on 39 for the fourth wicket to drag the innings back towards something competitive. Both made 30. Then Bhurtel, who opens the batting for Nepal and bowls part-time leg-spin, broke the stand and kept going. Afghanistan lost two wickets in two balls in the 15th over, going from 65 for 4 to 65 for 6, and captain Darwish Rasooli was out lbw first ball.

Nangeyalia Khan’s unbeaten 17 from 15 balls got them past 100. Sandeep Lamichhane bowled his four overs for 18 without a wicket, and it barely mattered.

A wobbly start to the chase

Nepal did not make it easy on themselves. Bhurtel went for a two-ball duck in the first over, and Aasif Sheikh followed for 2. At 31 for 3 in the seventh over, with Kushal Malla run out, a low target was starting to look awkward.

Sundeep Jora and Rohit Paudel settled it. Jora made 34 from 35 balls before he was run out, and Paudel stayed to the end with 33 not out from 32. Captain Dipendra Singh Airee added 15 before he was caught off Arab Gul, but by then Nepal needed one run, and Gulsan Jha got it.

Arab Gul, who took 4 for 8 against Japan on Thursday, finished with 1 for 13 here. Faridoon Dawoodzai’s three overs cost only 10. Afghanistan bowled tidily and ran out two batters, but 102 left them nothing to play with.

Not the side from the World Cup

This is not Afghanistan at full strength. Five players made their T20I debuts in the opening win over Japan, Akram, Eisakhil and Gul among them, and Rashid Khan was left out of the squad altogether. Karim Janat and Najibullah Zadran were the experienced heads, and Najibullah’s 30 was the joint top score.

Nepal will take the win anyway. They also won the first T20I between the two sides, by nine runs at the World T20 in Chittagong in March 2014.

What comes next

Group A has three teams, and the top two go through to the quarter-finals, where the four seeded sides are waiting. Afghanistan have played both their games, beating Japan by 48 runs and losing to Nepal, so their place now depends on Nepal against Japan, which starts at 5.30am IST on Saturday.

A Nepal win sends Nepal and Afghanistan through. A Japan win would leave all three teams with one win each, and net run rate would decide it.

Follow the rest of the Asian Games cricket