🏏Asia Cup 2023: M5: India vs Nepal in SL on 04/09/2023 at 3PM IST 🏏 - Page 63

Rohit Paudel | Nepal captain: The openers did a good job for us, the middle order could have done better, we were 30 runs short and if the middle order had done well then we could have reached 260-270. Our lower order has been doing a great job and contributing in the last 4-5 months. The conditions were really hard but our bowlers bowled well as the ball was not gripping.

Rohit Sharma | Player of the Match: Not really (happy with the knock), some nerves to start with but once I got my eye in, I wanted to get the team home. That was not intentional (the flick-sweep), I wanted to chip it over square leg but the bats these days are so good. When we came here we knew what our World Cup 15 is going to be like, the Asia Cup was not going to give us a better picture because it was only two games. But luckily we got to bat in the first game and bowl in this, so that made it a complete game for us. Still have a lot to work on. Lot of guys coming back from injuries and they need time to get back into the groove. Hardik and Ishan was very good in the last game to get us to that score. The bowling was okay today but the fielding was bad, we need to improve on that.

Rohit wanted to see what his bowlers had to offer when he opted to bowl and would not be satisfied with what he saw. But these games are being played to iron out the flaws before the World Cup and India have few more of them before the big tournament. Nepal should be proud of the way they played their games against two of the strongest teams in world cricket. They will take away a lot of learnings and experience from these games. That's all from this game. We have Sri Lanka v Afghanistan coming up tomorrow. Join us for that. Until then, goodbye and stay safe..

Phew. A long, long day even though we've only had 68.3 overs of actual play. But a result at the end of it despite all the rain. And India will be relieved, even though the margin is a comprehensive 10 wickets. They were off-colour on the field, dropping multiple catches including three in the first five overs, and things could have gotten tricky before their openers put the game to bed. A creditable display from Nepal, particularly with the bat. And they had the worst of conditions with the ball, having to bowl with a wet ball for most of the innings, so you can't really judge them too harshly despite the punishment they took from Rohit and Gill.

Arnab: "We dodged a bullet there in the Pakistan match. A sub par total batting first and then a wet ball in the 2nd innings...this ind vs nep match is a good example..."

11.5-pm That's that, then. Nepal go out of the Asia Cup, but they go out having shown a glimpse of the potential their young squad has in abundance. India move into the Super Four alongside. Who will join them from Group B? We'll find out tomorrow when Afghanistan take on Sri Lanka.

Congrats Ind for reaching super 4s

Congratulations to Team India for entering the Super Fours. A comprehensive victory.

It seems, rain is the ultimate winner in this Asia Cup!!