Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 16: Jason Holder's four-fer and skipper Shai Hope's 61 off 44 balls helped West Indies defeat Nepal by nine wickets in match 25 of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday as the Caribbean side became the first team to enter the Super Eights. Nepal are officially eliminated from the race of Super Eights.
The Shai Hope-led Windies chased down a modest target of 134 runs in just 15.2 overs to secure a comfortable win over the Asian nation.
Brandon King (22 off 17 balls) and Hope (61 not out off 44 balls) added 43 runs for the first wicket. After that, Shimron Hetmyer (46 not out off 32 balls) joined Hope and took the Windies past the line comfortably.
Earlier, the West Indies opted to bowl after winning the toss and started their bowling with spinner Akeal Hosein.
Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh opened the innings for Nepal. It was a messy start for Nepal as they lost Kushal Bhurtel on the score of one to Hosein on the fifth ball of the very first over of the match.
The captain Rohit Paudel was sent back to the pavilion for just five runs in the fourth over, after getting hit on the pad for lbw by Matthew Forde. The Rhinos lost their third wicket in the powerplay to Jason Holder in the form of Aasif Sheikh (11), who hit a couple of boundaries at the start.
Nepal crumbled to 22 runs for the loss of three crucial wickets at the end of powerplay. Following the powerplay, Aarif Skeikh was dismissed for two runs by in-form bowler Jason Holder.
Nepal was 46-5 in the 11th over after Lokesh Bam's dismissal at the tally of 13 runs by Shamar Joseph. A small partnership of 23 runs took place between Dipendra Singh Airee and Gulsan Jha for the sixth wicket before Gulsan was cleaned up by Roston Chase at 11 runs.
Dipendra was the only positive from Nepal's innings. He played a major role in the most crucial partnership of 54 runs for the seventh wicket with Sompal Kami. The partnership ended when Dipendra was dismissed by Holder for 58 runs off 47 balls. Nepal ended the innings at 133/8.
Brief Score: Nepal 133/8 in 20 overs (Dipendra Singh Airee 58, Sompal Kami 26; Jason Holder 27/4) vs West Indies 134/1 in 15.2 overs (Shai Hope 61, Shimron Hetmyer 46; Nandan Yadav 24/1)
Source: Times of Oman
