DALLAS: Nicholas Kirton’s anchoring half-century, followed by Dilon Heyliger’s four-fer led Canada to an astonishing 63-run victory over Nepal in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 warm-up match here on Tuesday.
Put into bat first, Canada racked up a massive total of 183/7 on the board, courtesy of Kirton’s 52 and Ravinderpal Singh’s late fireworks.
Canada, however, had a shaky start to their innings as their opener Aaron Johnson perished cheaply in the third over with just 22 runs on the board.
They then lost Rayyan Pathan in the next over with the scoreboard reading 33 as the right-handed batter was retired out on the first delivery.
Kirton then joined Navneet Dhaniwal in the middle and the duo partnered strongly to add 50 runs for the second wicket.
The anchoring partnership lasted on the penultimate delivery of the 10th over when Dhaniwal fell victim to Gulshan Jha after scoring a cautious 32 off 27 deliveries.
Kirton then formed brief partnerships with Pargat Singh (13) and Shreyas Movva (2) before finally perishing in the 16th over.
He remained the top-scorer for Canada with a 39-ball 52 which featured four fours and two sixes.
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Canada were in heaps of trouble being six down for 123 in 16 overs after Dilpreet Bajwa’s dismissal but their No.8 Singh came out all guns blazing and turned the game on its head with belligerent hitting.
Singh smashed one four and four sixes on his way to a 17-ball 41.
Abinash Bohara led the bowling charge for Nepal with two wickets while Sagar Dhakal, Lalit Rajbanshi, Gulshan Jha, Sompal Kami and Karan KC chipped in a wicket apiece.
Set to chase 184, Nepal’s strong batting lineup unfolded on a meagre 120 despite a notable performance by their top order.
Kushal Malla waged a lone battle for Nepal with a 30-ball 37, followed by Anil Sah (24), Aasif Sheikh (22) and Kushal Bhurtel (10), who made notable contributions while the rest of their batters failed to make it into the double digits.
Dilon Heyliger was the pick of the bowlers for Canada with 4/20, followed by Jeremy Gordon and Saad Bin Zafar contributed with two wickets each.
In other T20 World Cup warm-up matches, Oman defeated Papua New Guinea by three wickets while Namibia outclassed Uganda by five wickets.
Whereas, the fourth T20 World Cup 2024 warm-up match between the United States of America (USA) and Bangladesh was abandoned without a ball bowled.
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