Despite Lokesh Bam's brave innings, Nepal lost to England by 4 runs in the Twenty20 World Cup on Sunday. Despite Lokesh's 39 off 20 balls, Nepal could only manage 180 runs for the loss of 6 wickets after being set a target of 185 runs.

Most of the 17,000 people present at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai were Nepali fans. That's where Nepal put up a strong fight against England until the last ball. Even though Lokesh hit 4 fours and 2 sixes, Nepal was stopped from winning the World Cup against the Test nation when he failed to hit a boundary in the last 2 balls. 

Lokesh hit Jofra Archer for 2 consecutive sixes in the 18th over, bringing Nepal close to victory. In the 19th over, he hit Luke Wood for two fours, giving Nepal 14 runs. Needing 10 runs to win in the last over, Nepal could only score 5 runs. Sam Curran bowled brilliantly to give England the win. 

Lokesh said he was disappointed to have come close to winning against the Test nation again and missed out. 'It was a good game, we tried our best. We almost defeated England. But in the end, experience is important,' Lokesh said. 'This is my first World Cup, and also a dream. That's why I was very excited to play. Maybe due to lack of experience, I couldn't play as planned in the end. Karan (KC) and I had been playing by consulting each other so that even if one ball was missed, the next ball would be hit.'

The equation was that 6 runs were needed in the last two balls. Lokesh went for 1 run when he hit the fifth ball, but after Karan returned Lokesh, Nepal had to hit a six in the last ball. Lokesh said that he made this decision because Karan had just come to the crease and he was set.

England's Will Jack, who became the player of the match, also said that Nepal had put Nepal in a scary situation. 'The most important thing was to win, which we got. The game was very competitive, the credit for this must definitely go to Nepal,' Jack had said. 'Nepal was exceptional in bowling and fielding. Any game in the World Cup is challenging. This game was very competitive, the result was a no-brainer.'

Jack said he was very nervous before the last over while fielding on the boundary line. But he said that he had equal confidence in the England team since Sam Curran was bowling. He claims that Curran has always bowled well under pressure. 

Earlier, Kusal Bhurtel and Asif Sheikh had given Nepal a good start by putting on 37 runs in 4 overs. Asif, who hit a boundary, was dismissed for 7 runs in 9 balls. Kusal, who played very aggressively from the second over, scored 29 runs in 17 balls. He hit 4 boundaries and 1 six. Captain Rohit Poudal and Dipendra Singh Airi showed Nepal's potential by putting on 82 runs in 54 balls for the third wicket. Dipendra was dismissed for 44 runs in 29 balls. In this way, he completed 2000 runs in Twenty20 Internationals. He is the highest run-scorer from Nepal in Twenty20. 

He hit 6 fours and 1 six. Captain Rohit scored 39 runs in 34 balls with 2 fours and a six. Arif Sheikh scored 10 runs in 8 balls with 1 six and was dismissed by Jofra Archer. Gulshan Jha was also bowled by Luke Wood for 1 run. 

Liam Dawson, who came in as the first change, bowled hard. He took the wickets of Asif and Rohit for 21 runs in 4 overs. England's main bowler Archer took 1 wicket for 42 runs in 4 overs while Adil Rashid could not take any wickets for 42 runs in 3 overs. 

Earlier, England, which had won the toss with half-centuries from Jacob Bethell and captain Harry Brook, had scored 184 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Bethell hit two consecutive sixes off Kusal Bhurtel to complete his half-century in 28 balls. He scored 55 runs in 35 balls with 4 fours and a six. He is also the youngest England player to score a half-century in the Twenty20 World Cup.

He achieved this feat at the age of 22 years, 3 months and 16 days. Before that, Craig Kieswetter had scored a half-century at the age of 22 years, 5 months and 18 days. Brooke hit Nandan Yadav for a six in the first ball of the 19th over to complete his half-century in 32 balls. Nandan had Brooke caught by Sher Malla in the next ball. Brooke scored 53 runs with 4 fours and 3 sixes.

England scored 57 runs for 2 in the power play and 106 runs for 3 in 12 overs. But Nepal made a good comeback after that. Sandeep Lamichhane in particular bowled brilliantly. He took 1 wicket for just 25 runs in 4 overs. England added 50 runs in the last 5 overs.

Nepal got off to a great start. Sher, who was making his 'debut', dismissed Phil Salt for 1 run in his first ball. In the second over of the match, he had Salt caught by Sandeep at short fine leg. Jos Buttler was caught by Nandan off wicketkeeper Asif. Buttler scored 26 runs in 17 balls, including 5 fours. During his innings, Buttler completed 1,000 runs in the Twenty20 World Cup. 

Sandeep had Tom Benton out lbw for 2 runs. Sam Curran was bowled by Deependra for 2 runs. Jofra Archer was run out for 1 run. Jack remained unbeaten on 39 runs. Jack, who hit Karan KC for 3 sixes in the last over of the innings, hit 1 four and 4 sixes in 18 balls. Deependra and Nandan took 2 wickets each. Deependra spent 23 runs in 3 overs and Nandan spent 25 runs in 3 overs. 

Sher's golden 'debut'

Off-spinner Sher Malla has made a golden start in Twenty20 Internationals. He took the wicket of Phil Salt on the first ball of his first match against England. After taking the most wickets in the Nepal Premier League (NPL) two months ago, Sher opened the door for the Nepali team. The ball Salt tried to flick hit the top edge and was caught. But Jacob Bethell, who came after him, hit him for two sixes and a four. Sher's bowling throughout the match was not good. He gave 35 runs in 3 overs. 

His World Cup 'debut' He is the second Nepali player to take a wicket on the first ball in a Twenty20 International. Paras Khadka also took a wicket on the first ball against Hong Kong in the 2014 World Cup. Paras gave Sher his 'debut' cap at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Sher is the fourth Nepali player to take a wicket on the first ball in a Twenty20 International. Along with Sher and Par, Arif Sheikh and Kushal Bhurtel have taken wickets on their first balls.