One Hundred and Forty-Seven Was a Fortune: Nepal's Spinners Bowl Oman Out for 60 and Airee Carries Them to the Final

At the halfway point on Thursday, Nepal had 147 runs and no obvious reason to believe they were enough. They had been 36 for 4 inside twelve overs. They had lost their last six wickets for 18. They had batted 45.4 overs at 3.21 an over in a semi-final, against a side they were expected to beat, with a place in the final — and beyond it, a place at the 2027 Asia Cup — on the table.

Twenty-eight overs into the reply, Oman were 60 all out, and Nepal had won by 87 runs.

The shape of the afternoon was simple and merciless. Nepal bowled spin, and nothing else took a wicket. Lalit Rajbanshi had an opener stumped in the first over. Sandeep Lamichhane bowled six overs for nine runs and took three. Dipendra Singh Airee, who had already made the only fifty of the match, took three for 11. Rohit Paudel, more often thought of as a batter, finished it with 2 for 7. Between them the four spinners bowled 21.1 overs for 39 runs and took all ten wickets.

According to the Kathmandu Post, Nepal had never before defended a total under 190 in one-day cricket. They defended 147 with almost twenty-two overs to spare.

Nepal's innings came in three acts, and only the middle one was any good. In the first, Oman's new-ball bowlers took the top four for 28 runs off 56 balls. Muhammed Imran had Aasif Sheikh caught behind and Dev Khanal caught at 26; Jay Odedra removed Ishan Pandey — two days after his 90 against Hong Kong — for 1 in the next over; Hassnain Shah trapped Rohit Paudel in front. It was 36 for 4 in 11.2 overs.

The second act belonged to Basir Ahamad and Dipendra Singh Airee. They added 93 in 147 balls for the fifth wicket, which is 3.80 an over — slow by any modern standard and exactly right for this surface. Basir made 47 from 88, including the only six Nepal hit all day. Airee made 51 from 76 with four fours. Neither ever looked hurried, and for more than 24 overs Oman did not take a wicket.

The third act undid much of the second. Basir was caught behind off Mujibur Ali at 129, Airee was bowled by Odedra at 130, and the last six wickets fell for 18. Nepal were bowled out with 26 balls of their innings unused.

What happened next showed why Nepal's spin attack is so hard to play on a surface like this. Rajbanshi had Hasnain Ul Wahab stumped by Aasif Sheikh in the first over, and Karan Sonavale caught by Khanal in the third. Oman were 9 for 2. Lamichhane then bowled Hammad Mirza, who had made 5 from 42 balls, and bowled Jatinder Singh, the one Oman batter who had looked willing to score. From 43 for 3, Oman lost four wickets for seven runs in 20 balls: Vinayak Shukla caught and bowled by Airee, Mujibur Ali caught by Airee off Paudel, Odedra lbw to Lamichhane. The last three wickets fell for ten runs. The innings lasted 28.1 overs.

Of the ten dismissals, four were bowled or lbw, two were stumpings or catches by the keeper, and one was a return catch. That is the signature of spin bowled straight, at the stumps, to batters who could not work out how to score off it.

Lamichhane's summary, as reported by the Kathmandu Post, was that the players had "showed their character today despite being under pressure." It was a generous description of the batting and an accurate one of the bowling.

It would be wrong to let the scoreline obscure how good Oman were for the first half of this match. Having chosen to bowl, they held one of the tournament's stronger batting orders to 147. Jay Odedra bowled his ten overs for 26 and took three wickets, including Airee. Hassnain Shah took 3 for 28 and Muhammed Imran 2 for 26. Mujibur Ali bowled six overs for 16. Not one of Oman's six bowlers went at more than 4.28 an over, and between them they bowled Nepal out with more than four overs unused.

Their mistake, if it can be called one, was not taking a wicket between the twelfth over and the thirty-sixth. The Basir–Airee partnership was the only period in the match in which the bat was on top, and Oman let it run for 24 overs. On a surface like this one, 93 runs was the match.

The chase was never really a chase. Oman hit four boundaries in their entire innings and no sixes. Jatinder Singh's 25 from 41 was the only innings with any attacking intent, and when he was bowled by Lamichhane at 43 for 4 in the nineteenth over, the remaining six wickets added 17. Hammad Mirza (5 from 42) and Jiten Ramanandi (13 from 42) occupied 84 balls between them for 18 runs — the right idea in principle against four spinners, but with wickets falling at the other end, occupation without scoring only postponed the ending.

According to the Times of Oman, Oman lost to Kuwait and to the UAE in the group stage before reaching this semi-final. They were never quite at ease in this tournament, and the afternoon exposed the gap between their bowling, which belongs at this level, and their batting against quality spin, which on Thursday did not.

The Times of Oman described it as a spin-friendly pitch, and the scorecard says the same thing more loudly. Twenty wickets fell for 207 runs in 73.5 overs — 2.80 an over across the whole match. Not one of the twelve bowlers used conceded more than 4.28 an over. Even the two Nepal bowlers who did not take a wicket, Karan KC and the debutant Sher Malla, bowled seven overs between them for 18, because the pressure at the other end left Oman no release.

The contrast with Tuesday is striking. At the same venue two days earlier, Hong Kong made 261 for 7 and Nepal replied with 246 — 507 runs in the match. Whatever surface was prepared for this semi-final, it asked an entirely different question, and it was Nepal who had the bowlers to answer it.

Oman's decision to field first was reasonable in principle — a chasing side knows its target — and it worked for 45 overs. It did not account for having to bat last against Lamichhane, Airee, Rajbanshi and Paudel on a pitch that only became harder.

There are all-rounders whose two skills sit side by side, and there are all-rounders whose two skills win the same match. On Thursday Dipendra Singh Airee was the second kind.

He walked in at 36 for 4 in the twelfth over, with a semi-final slipping. He made 51 from 76 balls with four fours, the only half-century of the match, and he did it by refusing to attempt what the pitch would not allow. His partnership with Basir was worth 93; nobody else in the match was part of a stand worth more than 23.

Then he bowled six overs of off-spin for 11 runs and took three wickets: Oman's captain Vinayak Shukla caught off his own bowling, Shakeel Ahmed caught by Khanal, Hassnain Shah caught behind. He also held the catch that removed Mujibur Ali off Paudel. Four dismissals, one fifty, and a match in which 147 turned out to be 87 runs too many.

It is the kind of game that is remembered for the collapse of the side that lost. The side that won should remember it for Airee.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

Nepal play the UAE in the final on Saturday, September 12, back at the Bayuemas Oval, and the winner qualifies for the 2027 Asia Cup. The history is rich. In the 2023 edition of this tournament Nepal beat the UAE in the final at Kirtipur, Gulsan Jha unbeaten on 67, to reach their first Asia Cup. The Kathmandu Post has taken to calling the fixture the "Associate El Clásico", and counts 11 Nepal wins in 19 ODIs between the sides.

The UAE arrive unbeaten, having bowled Hong Kong out for 70 in the other semi-final, with Haider Ali taking 6 for 14. It is a final between two bowling attacks built on spin, and it may well be decided by which batting order can find the partnership that Basir and Airee found here. Nepal's top four made 28 runs on Thursday, and their last six wickets fell for 18. Against the UAE, they may not be able to bowl their way out of that twice.

Oman play Hong Kong in the third-place play-off on Saturday. Their bowlers have given them reason to believe they belong in a match like this one. Their batting has given them the work to do before the next one.