Nepal has been losing after winning

After covering South Africa for 115 runs, Nepal seemed to be heading towards victory with an easy target. The first win against a Test nation came close, Nepal. If the result was in Nepal's favor, it would have been a sensational result in the history of the Twenty20 World Cup.

Nepal had scored 16 runs in reply. Another 100 runs were required for victory. Nepal's former U-19 player Shashi Kesari sent a message saying 'We love South Africa'. His message was clear, Nepal will always play well against South Africa and produce winning results like in the past.

After Shashi hit the winning four, Nepal defeated South Africa by 1 wicket in the U-19 World Cup held in Bangladesh in 2004. After Shakti Gauchan's patient half-century, when 3 runs were needed in the last 3 balls, Shashi's four gave Nepal a historic victory in the age group.

South Africa had an even bigger misfortune in the 2000 U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. Jack Rudolph's 154 and Graeme Smith's 74 made South Africa score 295 for 5 in the allotted 50 overs. Nepal, who is playing U-19 World Cup for the first time, scored only 24 runs in 12 overs and lost 4 wickets. However, after the match was canceled due to rain, the points were distributed. The help of 1 point obtained from the same game played a big role in bringing Nepal to Super Six.

Greater luck for Nepal and misfortune for South Africa happened in the 2006 World Cup. In the plate semi-final in Colombo, Nepal had to defend the score of 214-4 made by batting first. After Basant Regmi took 3 wickets with only 31 runs in 10 overs, Nepal stopped South Africa at 212-5 and got a sensational victory by 2 runs. In other words, the Nepali team was not defeated at the U-19 level.

photos: Hemant Shrestha/Kantipur

A good start by opener batsmen Asif Sheikh and Kushal Bhurtel saw Nepal in a strong position with Asif and Anil Shah's half-century partnership, then collapsed before the sensational bowling of Tabrez Samsi. Nepal's middle order collapsed and reached the 'climax' of the 18th over. 7 wickets were still safe for Nepal who had to score 18 runs in the last 18 balls. Samsi, who had conceded just 17 runs in 3 overs and picked up 2 wickets, came in the 18th over to bowl his last over. Ashif was set by scoring 41 runs at the crease, while Dipendrasingh Airy running witwind wicket was holding the rhythm by supporting Ashif well. But after Samsi dismissed Airi and Asif in the third and sixth balls of the over, Nepal had to score at least 16 runs in 12 balls to win. The game was still not lost from Nepal. In the second ball of the 19th over, Enrich Nokie dismissed Nepal's left-handed batsman Kushal Malla for just 1 run.

Enrich, who was under pressure to score 16 runs in 8 balls by dotting the next two balls, was relieved by Sompal Kami by adding six and 2 runs in the last two balls respectively. Sompal, who gave hope by scoring 8 runs in 4 balls, left the strike for Gulshan who did not face the first ball. Gulshan played the first 2 ball dots of the 20th over. Nepal was only 2 runs away from the victory after Gulshan hit a boundary in the third ball and 2 runs in the fourth ball to overcome the pressure of scoring 8 runs in 4 balls for victory. Nepal had only 2 balls left for a sensational victory. This time the result was not pleasant for Nepal, which has been lucky with South Africa in age group matches.

After Gulshan failed to score any runs in the last two short balls, Nepal suffered an 'unfortunate' loss by 1 run. Lagna Gulshan and Sompal's last effort to take the game to Super Over by taking 1 run on the last ball of the game and making the score 'tie' was not successful either. After Gulson was run out, Nepal missed out on a historic victory. Nepal could score only 114 runs after losing 7 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs. Asif scored 42 runs off 49 balls.

'The target was not very big, the wicket was a bit difficult for batting, the plan was to make a partnership by giving a good start,' Asif said, 'After a good partnership with Kushal, my responsibility was to take the score to the end. It seems that Anil (Shah) Dai's wicket has become a little more important.' Although he was sad about the defeat, Asif said that the Nepali team played to win and this performance against a team like South Africa has made the morale of the players even higher.

Anil scored 27 runs in 24 balls with the help of 3 fours and 1 six. Playing in place of spinner Keshav Maharaj, Samsi took 4 wickets at the cost of 19 runs in 4 overs. Samsi bowled his second best in Twenty20 internationals by dismissing Nepal's Kushal Bhurtel and captain Rohit Paudel in the eighth over and Dipendra and Asif in the 18th over, scoring 34 runs unbeaten in 7 overs.

South Africa's score against Nepal is the team's second lowest score in the Twenty20 World Cup. The Nepali bowler, who did not allow South Africa to play openly in the first 6 overs of the power play, kept South Africa at 38-1 and 57-1 in 10 overs, then bowled more economically. The South African batsmen were unable to play the big shots. Riza Hendricks top scored with 43 runs. While Hendricks scored 30 runs off 32 balls, Bhurtel dropped an easy catch at long-off off Avinash Bohra. Bhurtel, who came for bowling in the next over, made up for it by cutting and bowling.

In the fourth over, Dipendra cut and bowled the out-of-form Quinton de Kock to give Nepal its first success. De Kock managed to score only 10 runs off 11 balls with 1 boundary. Captain Aiden Markram also managed to score only 15 runs off 22 balls with 2 fours. He was a victim of Bhurtel. Bhurtel gave South Africa another big blow by dismissing Henrik Klaassen. David Miller didn't last long either. He was dismissed by Dipendra for 7 runs. Tristan Stubbs remained unbeaten on 27 runs off 18 balls with 2 fours and 1 six. Dipendra took 3 wickets for 21 runs in 4 overs. Bhurtel, who also bowled the last over, took 4 wickets by spending 19 runs in 4 overs. This is also Bhurtel's best bowling in Twenty20 internationals. He conceded only 10 runs in his first 3 overs.

The catch of the last over reminded Shashi of 20 years ago. He was saying, 'Same thing happened in 2004. This was the atmosphere. We had passed that stressful moment. However, the way Nepal played in the West Indies is also unbelievable.' The

is South Africa's fourth consecutive victory in this World Cup. After winning the first 3 matches, South Africa, which reached the Super '8', fielded a full team against Nepal. Nepal has been eliminated from the group stage after this defeat. Nepal, who is winless, will play the last match of the group stage against Bangladesh on Monday morning.