As the manager of the Nepali team, Pradeep Karki once reached the 'iconic' cricket ground of the UAE, Sharjah. This is the story of 2004, when Nepal was about to step into first-class cricket. It was only natural that Karki, an all-rounder who made a good impact in domestic cricket from Baneshwar Heights, understood the meaning of cricket in Sharjah.

The talk of the Sharjah International Cricket Stadium started in 1986 when Pakistan's Javed Miyadad hit India's Chetan Sharma for a six in 1986 when he needed 4 runs off the last ball for victory. India's Sachin Tendulkar played an incredible innings of ODI cricket against Australia in Sharjah in 1998.

As soon as he reached the Sharjah, which carries such importance, Karki reached the middle of the field and covered the pitch. But there is a provision that other than the captain and coach of the playing team cannot go near the pitch. So Karki was cautioned by the match referee. Karki gets more excited remembering this moment.

21 years after that moment, Nepali cricket has made its fans more excited and excited. Nepal defeated the two-time Twenty20 World Cup champion West Indies by 19 runs in Sharjah on Saturday. This was Nepal's first victory against a Test-recognized nation. Nepal is playing a three-match Twenty20 international series with the West Indies. Nepal achieved this success in Sharjah when it was playing a series against a fully recognized nation for the first time.

The victory against the West Indies is the latest memorable game associated with Nepali cricket in Sharjah, which has hosted the highest number of 255 ODI matches. Earlier, some special moments of Nepal in Shar Jahan:

Nepali cricket team's first live televised match

The Nepali team under the captaincy of Pawan Aggarwal was playing the 2000 ACC trophy in UAE. Despite Ganesh Shahi's century in the first match, Nepal suffered a 1-wicket defeat against UAE in Sharjah. Nepal defeated Japan by 7 wickets in the second match. Nepal and Maldives were competing in the last match of the group stage and the winner of that match would advance to the semi-finals. Nepal was eliminated from the group stage of the previous two ACC trophies.

Nepal, hoping to reach the semi-finals of the ACC Trophy for the first time, was bowled out for 191 runs by the Maldives at the Sharjah International Cricket Stadium after losing 8 wickets in 50 overs. It was a huge score at the time. But after Kiran Agarwal scored 91 runs in 130 balls, Nepal completed the target 7 balls ahead and secured their place in the semi-finals. Until Raju Khadka's century against Bhutan in 2003, Kiran's score remained the highest individual score by a Nepali national team player.

Nepal's semi-final match was against Hong Kong. The semi-final and final matches of the tournament were broadcasted live by Star Sports, in that sense, the match played by Nepal against Hong Kong was the first match for Nepali cricket to be televised live. The second ACC Trophy semi-final match in Nepal in 1998 was also broadcast live by Star Sports, but Nepal could not reach the semi-finals.

Mahbub Alam managed to drop Rahul Sharma's catch early on. After Rahul took advantage of that and scored an unbeaten 145 off 136 balls, Hong Kong scored 268-3 in the scheduled 50 overs. In reply, after being bowled out for 89 runs, Nepal lost by 1  hundred and 79 runs.

Sharad's century

Paras Khadka, Sharad Bheshavkar, Raj Shrestha, Pawan Das, Mahesh Chhetri, Bantu Bataju, Sunil Jain, Ravi Thapa, Irfan Siddiqui, Sushan Shrestha and other players played the first age group tournament in UAE. The tournament was the U-15 Asia Cup 2002. Nepal played the tournament matches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. Sharad scored a century while playing the only match in Sharjah against Kuwait.

Sharad made his debut in international cricket scoring 106 runs against Qatar. It was only Nepal's second century in the age group international tournament at that time. Monique Shrestha had already scored a century in the ACC U-17 tournament in Bangladesh last year. Sharad played 102 balls and hit 13 fours without giving any chance in his innings. Coach Roy Dias used to say that he was very impressed by the Nepalese team including Sharad and Paras. He used to say that the Nepali cricket team can cover a long journey by including some of the players in this team.

After defeating Singapore, Kuwait, Qatar and Malaysia in the group stage, Nepal lost to India by 27 runs in the first match of the Super League 'B', but reached the semi-finals with a 3-wicket win over Bangladesh and a 7-wicket win over Kuwait. After losing to Nepal in the plate semi-final of the ICC U-19 World Cup held in New Zealand in the same year and in this tournament in the UAE, the Bangladesh Cricket Board formed an inquiry committee to find out the reason for the defeat.

Nepal's first first-class match

Nepal started its first first-class match from the Sharjah Cricket International Stadium. After the International Cricket Council (ICC) organized the Asia Qualifiers of the Intercontinental Cup three-day tournament, Nepal got the opportunity to make its 'debut' in first-class cricket. Coincidentally, that match against UAE was at the Sharjah Cricket International Stadium.

After Arshad Ali scored 143 and captain Khurram Khan scored 75 runs, UAE announced the end of the first innings at 293-9. Captain Raju Khadka played 94 balls and scored 67 runs by hitting 11 fours and 1 six, but Nepal was bowled out for 213 runs after playing 76 overs. Ali Asad, the tall fast bowler of UAE, bowled 27 overs and took 9 wickets at the expense of 74 runs.

Manoj Katuwal was the only player not dismissed in his bowling, who scored 24 runs off 83 balls, while Sanjam Regmi was unbeaten on 8 runs off 13 balls. After Fahda Usman scored 102 unbeaten runs, UAE lost 6 wickets and scored 253 runs, declaring the end of the second innings and giving Nepal a target of 334 runs. After Nepal played 75 overs and scored 141 runs losing 5 wickets, this match ended in a draw. Sharad Bheshavkar played 172 balls and hit 5 fours and scored 50 and Manoj played 77 balls and scored 10 runs unbeaten and played a major role in bringing Nepal to a draw.

The winner of the ACC trophy for the first time

After the emergence of Afghanistan, Nepal's edge was getting weaker. The 2012 ACC Trophy was an opportunity for Nepal. The tournament was held in the UAE. Nepal played the first match against UAE in Sharjah. After Shakti Gauchan took 5 wickets, Nepal bowled out UAE for 133 runs in 40.5 overs. But Nepal had to struggle a lot to overcome this score. After Anil Mandal scored 63 runs off 129 balls, Nepal achieved the target in the 46th over and won by 4 wickets. This was Nepal's first victory over UAE. 

After winning against Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Hong Kong, Nepal became the winner of Group B and reached the semi-finals. After defeating Malaysia by 21 runs in the semi-final, Nepal reached the final for the third time, and in the final they met the UAE, that too in Sharjah. In the final, after both the UAE and Nepal teams scored 241 runs, the score was tied and became joint winners.

When Nepal needed 2 runs for victory in the last over, Shakti Gauchan hit long off but he was run out trying to get 2 runs. Paras, who scored 291 runs and took 9 wickets, was selected as the player of the series. As UAE was the home team, Nepal returned with the joint winner's trophy. Although participating since the first edition in 1996, Nepal won the ACC Trophy for the first time. Coincidentally, it became the last edition of the ACC Trophy.

The first trip to the World Cup

Nepal had success in UAE and Sharjah when they made the trip to the World Cup for the first time after passing the 2013 qualifying stage. After defeating Denmark and Kenya in Dubai, Nepal played the fourth match against Papua New Guinea in Sharjah. As they lost to Scotland in the third match, the match against Papua New Guinea was very important for Nepal to enter the previous round. 

After Geraint Jones, who has tasted victory in the Aces series from England, scored 55 runs in 53 balls, Papua New Guinea scored 143 runs with the loss of 6 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. After Vinod Bhandari scored an unbeaten 51 off 23 balls playing some extraordinary shots, Nepal completed the target 10 balls before.