Nepal and Japan are now playing in a decisive match of the Twenty-20 World Cup Asia-East Asia Pacific Qualifier. These two teams have already completed their journey to reach the Twenty20 World Cup by entering the Super Six.

Nepal defeated Kuwait by 58 runs in the first match of Group B on Wednesday. Japan scored 5 wickets against Kuwait on Thursday. As a result, Nepal and Japan reached the second stage, while Kuwait was eliminated from the group stage.

The winner of the match between Nepal and Japan will not only be the winner of the group, the winning team will have an extra 2 points in the Super Six . Nepal is going to play with Japan after 25 years. Japan initially played cricket under the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), which led to regular meetings with Nepal.

After the ACC Trophy in the UAE in 2000, Japan separated from the ACC and started playing in the East Asia Pacific. In 2023, Papua New Guinea won the East Asia Pacific and went to America and the West Indies to play the Twenty20 World Cup. For the same reason, Papua New Guinea did not have to play in Asia and East Asia Pacific this time.

Japan took advantage of it and reached Oman as the winner of the selection of East Asia Pacific 'B' region. Japan won all 6 matches of the double round robin in the 4-nation qualifier held in South Korea last year. But after the International Cricket Council (ICC) merged Asia and the East Asia Pacific region, Nepal has got an opportunity to renew its cricket relationship with Japan.

In 2008, Japan and Nepal played together in World Cricket League Division 5 in Jersey. But they were in a different group. Japan was eliminated from the group stage, while Nepal reached the semi-finals and stopped. Since 2019, the match between the two nations has been recognized by the ICC as a Twenty20 International, so Japan and Nepal are on the same status. But Nepal also has one-day international recognition since 2018.

Once regular rivals Nepal and Japan are going to meet after 25 years in international cricket. The matches played by Nepal National Cricket Men's Team against Japan in the past are of this type .

Nepal's first international victory

1996, Malaysia

Nepal participated in the first ACC Trophy held in Malaysia as its first international competition. After losing to Bangladesh on the basis of net run rate in the first match, Nepal's second match was against Japan. This was the first international participation of Japan. Japan also lost to Brunei in the first match and stood in the match with Nepal.

Manish Raj Pandey after receiving the player of the match award at the official dinner of the first ACC Trophy.

In the match on September 7 in Padang, Nepal bowled out Japan for 72 runs in 33 overs. LB Chhetri took 3 wickets by spending 9 runs in 6 overs, Vasant Shahi took 2 wickets by spending 8 runs and Manishraj Pandey took 1 wicket.

Nepal had completed the target in 15 overs. It was Nepal's first victory in international cricket. Manishraj Pandey scored 27 runs and Sanjay Gurung scored 20 runs. Manish was chosen as the player of the match for his all-round performance. This was also the first player of the match award for a Nepali cricketer in international cricket.

Rain's disappointment

1998, Lalitpur

Nepal had the great courage to organize the second ACC trophy in 1998 with limited physical infrastructure. For this, the competition games were organized at the newly built Trivi Cricket Ground Kirtipur, St. Xavier's School Jawalakhel and Pulchok Engineering Campus.

But the match between Nepal and Japan on the second field of Pulchok Campus was canceled due to rain without even a toss. This was Nepal's first match in the tournament. Nepal became even more disappointed when Nepal was forced to see its second match against Thailand in Kirtipur also canceled due to rain. This ended Nepal's hopes of reaching the semi-finals. After losing to UAE and Hong Kong in the last two matches, Nepal went winless in the tournament held at home.

Japan's baseball grip 

2000, UAE

In the third edition of the ACC Trophy, Nepal and Japan were facing each other for the third consecutive time . After a narrow 1-wicket loss against UAE in the first match, Nepal was facing Japan in the second match and it was very important for Nepal to win this match to reach the semi-finals of the ACC Trophy for the first time.

Japan batted almost the entire 50 overs . Playing 49.5 overs, Japan was bowled out for 133 runs. Hirokazu Takahashi scored 28 runs. From Nepal, Vinod Das took 2 wickets after spending 24 runs in 9 overs, captain Pawan Aggarwal spent 2 wickets after spending 17 runs and Mahbub Alam took 2 wickets after spending 23 runs. After Kiran Agarwal scored an unbeaten 53 off 63 balls, Nepal achieved the target by losing 3 wickets in 20.3 overs. Sanjeev Joshi scored 16 and captain Raju Khadka scored 44 unbeaten runs to win Nepal.