IND vs NEP: India won the toss and elected to field first first in their second Group-stage match of Asia Cup 2023. While their opening match against Pakistan was called off after India's batting, India captain Rohit Sharma said that he wanted to give his bowlers some game time before they go deeper into the tournament. However, India's fielding got off to a nightmarish start in this fixture at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.
While India started their bowling with Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj bowling well in tandem, it was their fielding that was a major let down. While Shreyas Iyer dropped a catch at slip, soon after Virat Kohli dropped a sitter. Not much later, Ishan Kishan could not hold on to a fairly straight forward catch down the leg side with his gloves on.
Making use of the dropped catches, Nepal openers Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh got off to a brisk start with their openers putting on a 65-run stand before finally a catch was taken. It was Shardul Thakur who broke through for the Men in Blue but damage had already been done as Nepal tackled the new ball having lost just 1 wicket and scoring at a healthy rate. Kushal Bhurtel was the first one to walk back as he departed for 38 of 25.
Take a look at the dropped catches here:
It wasn't the best of effort on the field for Team India as other than the dropped catches, they were sloppy in the field with several misfields and overthrows. Eventually they managed to bowl out Nepal for 230 but not before they had batted 48.2 overs for their 230.