The opening match of Nepal Premier League (NPL) Season 2. Defending champions Janakpur Bolts scored 26 runs in the first 2 overs against Kathmandu Gorkhas. Based on this, many believed that Janakpur would come out stronger this time than when they won the title last year.

Cricket is a Twenty20 game, where 1-2 overs can change the course of the game. This time, Janakpur's first 2 overs were the exact opposite of what was said above. Many people made a big mistake by analyzing Janakpur's game by watching the first 2 overs. These first 2 overs were also one of the few moments that Janakpur's supporters should have celebrated in the entire journey of NPL 2.

Janakpur, who became the winner in the first season, was forced to sit with their hands on their heads while watching this game. Janakpur had disappointed its supporters after losing the first four games. Janakpur was stuck at 130-135 runs in these games. The team was not able to bat openly. The team's bowling was not able to defend even a small score. The supporters were confused, whether their team's bowling or batting was bad. Moreover, the Janakpur team itself was confused when regular catches were also missed. 

In the fifth match, Chitwan Rhinos batted first against Janakpur and scored 176 runs. Looking at the situation of losing in the last four consecutive matches, this was like chewing on an iron jaw for Janakpur. But Janakpur won the match in a grand manner by scoring 180 runs in 17.3 overs. This revived Janakpur's faint hope of reaching the playoffs. But Janakpur was defeated again in the last two matches. After suffering defeats in 6 out of 7 matches, Janakpur Bolts remained at the bottom. Janakpur had fallen from the top.

The success that opening batsmen Lahiru Milantha and Asif Sheikh gave Janakpur in the beginning of the first match was only temporary. By the time they reached the third match, Milantha had lost his place in the Janakpur team. Milantha is the same player who scored the highest 293 runs in the first season last year and played a winning innings of 87 runs off 49 balls against Sudurpaschim Royals in the final. 

After losing in the third match against Pokhara Rhinos, Janakpur captain Anil Sah came to the press conference after the match to take suggestions from journalists on how to improve the team's performance. When he reached the fourth match due to poor form and the team's failure, he himself was 'dropped'. Janakpur is a team where the marquee player is not the captain. Asif is the marquee player of the team, while Anil has been captaining Janakpur. Janakpur did not give Asif a leadership role this time. Last season, when Anil was injured most of the time, Janakpur lifted the title under Asif's captaincy. 

After Anil also ceased to be Janakpur's first choice, South African veteran fast bowler Wayne Parnell took over the leadership of Janakpur. Parnell became the first foreign player to captain the NPL. He had only been included in the Janakpur team in the previous match and had scored an unbeaten half-century in the match against Pokhara. Once the main hope of South Africa's fast bowling, he had not bowled against Sudurpaschim and had been injured in the match against Pokhara. 

Parnell also played only 3 matches and captained the last 2 matches. When it came to the sixth match against Lumbini Lions, Jan Nicole Lofty Eaton arrived as Janakpur's third captain. Last year, this Namibian player was in Chitwan. He played rarely and could not make much of an impact. Although he played all the matches in Janakpur, few expected him to get the captaincy. Perhaps he did not think so either. 

Before Janakpur played the last match of the league stage against Karnali Yaks, social media was filled with memes and trolls, ‘Janakpur, which has already made 3 captains, will make whom captain in today’s match.’ In a way, Janakpur seemed to be losing out in the leadership selection. After dropping Anil, Asif had hoped to get this role. But when he was not given it, Asif was hanging around the field and ‘conversing’ with the team officials before the match against Sudurpaschim. He went to the crease to bat straight away without ‘warming up’ and was blown off by Scott Kugglen after 2 balls.

Janakpur coach Manoj Katuwal, on the other hand, says that after Anil said that there was pressure on him to be the captain, he had to go to a new leadership and that he was given the responsibility because he was experienced in world cricket. Katuwal sees the lack of form of players including Lalit Rajbanshi and Kishor Mahato as another reason for the defeat. ‘On paper, we were strong, but our home players could not perform. Asif and Anil could only play in 1-1 matches,' concluded Janakpur coach Katuwal, 'The foreign players also could not play as expected. If all the foreign players had come from the beginning, the situation could have been different.'

Fast bowler Kishore could only take 1 wicket in 4 matches, and he was not seen in Janakpur's 'playing lineup' again. Left-arm spinner Lalit lost his place in the team after taking only 2 wickets in 4 matches. Lalit, who got a chance again in the last match, took 2 wickets. Anil could only score 73 runs in 6 matches. All-rounder Rupesh Singh, who has played for the Nepali national team, could not show his edge in both bowling and batting. Shubh Kansakar and Mayan Yadav were also average. 

Sanjay Krishnamurthy scored the highest 167 runs from Janakpur. Apart from that, only Maj Sadaqat (113), Lofty Eaton (108) and Asif (105) had crossed 100 runs. This is a very poor statistic for any team's batting. Sadaqat, who came straight after leading Pakistan 'A' to the ACC Rising Star Cup title in Doha, Qatar, did not play the first two matches for Janakpur. In bowling, Krishnamurthy and Sangeeth Kore took the most wickets for Janakpur with 6 wickets each. While Krishnamurthy is only a 'part-time' bowler, Kore played only 3 matches. 

Before the start of the NPL, Janakpur had signed veteran South African spinner Imran Tahir. But by the time Tahir was available, Janakpur was already in a position to be out of the playoff race. Perhaps that is why Janakpur did not take that risk and Tahir turned away from Dubai. Had Tahir come, Janakpur would have been the eighth foreign player this season. There was a provision that a team could only have 6 foreign players. In that sense, Janakpur also experimented with foreign players a lot. 

Without Jimmy Neesham, Janakpur became like a ghost. This all-rounder from New Zealand was a key player in last season's champion journey. But due to the NPL rules that only four players currently playing from Test nations can play, Neesham could not come. Since Janakpur did not have a quota of 'cap' players, Neesham had gone to Pokhara. No foreign player from Janakpur could take Neesham's place. 

The biggest name to come to the NPL is the great West Indies batsman Shivnarayan Chandrapal. He came as the coach of Janakpur. He also could not lead the champion Janakpur. He showed some lack of experience in training. When he experimented one after another in player selection, Janakpur's unforgettable journey was over. His biggest weakness was his inability to show faith in the domestic players. 

Lalit took 17 wickets last year and was the highest wicket-taker along with Kugglen of Sudurpaschim. He bowled from the first over with the new ball many times during that journey. Even when Sudurpaschim scored 184 runs in the final, Lalit took 1 wicket for 15 runs in 4 overs, keeping 1 maiden. But this time Chandrapal brought him in as an opening bowler in only 1 match. Despite not showing faith in his main bowler, Janakpur's bowling edge seemed weak.