Nepal demolished Malaysia by 167 runs in the Asian Games Men’s Qualifier in Singapore on Thursday, posting 275-7 in 20 overs and then bowling their opponents out for 108-9 to move to the top of Group A.
Kushal Bhurtel paced the assault, blasting 126 off 54 balls with 14 fours and eight sixes. His innings followed the 129 he scored earlier in the tournament, making him only the tenth batter in men’s T20 internationals to score centuries in consecutive innings and the first Nepali to reach three T20I centuries.
The margin was engineered inside the power play: Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh combined for a 134-run stand inside nine overs, Sheikh hammering 68 off 24 balls as Nepal raced to 275-7. That total left Malaysia with a mountain to climb and Nepal’s bowlers never allowed a foothold.
Sher Malla led the attack with three wickets for 14 runs as Malaysia could muster only 108-9 in reply. Syed Aziz top-scored for Malaysia with 54 off 45, while Virandeep Singh picked up three wickets when Nepal batted. Vijay Unni and Aziz took two wickets apiece during Nepal’s innings.
The result gave Nepal back-to-back victories in the qualifying campaign — they had earlier beaten China by 221 runs — and put them atop Group A. Bhurtel’s 126 also pushed him clear as Nepal’s leading T20 international run-scorer, a run tally that now stands at 2,240 from 78 matches, and cemented his role as the tournament’s most dangerous batter.
The match carried an added twist: Nepal lost the toss and were sent in to bat, yet still produced a total rarely seen in a 20-over game. Being put into bat might normally be framed as a tactical disadvantage in humid Singapore conditions, but the opening partnership and Bhurtel’s acceleration reversed any perceived edge the toss might have given Malaysia.
The scale of the victory leaves two clear storylines. First is the momentum Nepal have built: two overwhelming wins leave them with a superior net run rate and clear psychological advantage in Group A. Second is Bhurtel’s rare individual run — three T20I centuries overall, consecutive hundreds in international T20s — a sequence that will force opposing captains to rethink bowling plans immediately.
The campaign’s next steps are less certain. The win establishes Nepal as the team to beat in Group A, but the qualifiers still require sustained performance to convert position into progression; the schedule and the decisive fixtures that will determine who advances were not confirmed in the match report. That unfinished business is the single, consequential question now: can Nepal maintain this scoring engine and the depth in bowling long enough to turn dominating group-stage form into qualification?
For now, the scoreboard in Singapore reads 275-7 and 108-9, Bhurtel’s 126, and Nepal sitting first in Group A — a statement performance that raises the bar for the rest of the field even as the path forward remains to be settled.
