Nepal’s Sundeep Jora scripts history in T20Is; becomes the youngest to score a fifty

Nepal cricket is scripting yet another success story in cricket and recently won their first ever ODI series, beating UAE 2-1 and their captain Paras Khadka became the first Nepalese cricketer to score an ODI hundred. Most of the Nepalese cricketers are youngsters who are learning the ropes of the game with hands-on experience.

One such teenager Sundeep Jora has now created history in T20Is for his country. On Thursday, Jora made his T20I debut for Nepal against the UAE and at 17 years and 103 days, became the youngest to score a T20I half-century ever. UAE batted first and scored 153 runs thanks to 59 from Shaiman Anwar. Anwar was helped by CP Rizwan (22), Muhammad Usman (30) and Mohammad Boota (20) in his quest for runs after the team had a bad start losing opener Ashfaq Ahmed for just two runs.

Sandeep Lamichhane and Basant Regmi both picked two wickets each in the match. Nepal did their best to chase the runs, but two wickets apiece from captain Mohammad Naveed, Sultan Ahmed and Zahoor Khan, kept the Nepal team to 132/7 in 20 overs. Jora top-scored with 53* in 46 balls with 3 fours and 1 six.

Apart from him, Paras Khadka (25) and Sompal Kami (27) were the other batsmen to reach double figures. Jora had added 39 runs with Kami for the seventh wicket to give his team some hope. Unfortunately, Jora’s efforts went in vain and Nepal lost by 21 runs.

Jora joined teammate Rohit Paudel, who last week, became the youngest to score an international fifty. Paudel had scored 55 runs against UAE in the second ODI between Nepal and UAE. In doing so, Paudel broke the record of Indian great Sachin Tendulkar, who scored a fifty (59) against Pakistan in his debut Test series in 1989.

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