Nepal, in their final group-stage fixture, defeated Bahrain by six wickets in the rain-affected game at Terdthai Cricket Ground in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday.

The win propelled Nepal to the top of the group in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Region Qualifier between nine teams divided into three groups of three each. As per the tournament structure, the top teams from three groups enter the Super Three stage. And one of the three teams has already been finalised.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) entered the Super Three as the topper of Group B. Thailand have also almost confirmed their spot in the Super Three as the topper of Group A; their chance would end if Kuwait defeat Bhutan by a massive margin on Friday.

Similarly, Nepal will have to wait for the Bahrain vs Hong Kong fixture, the last game of Group C, to go in their favour to enter the Super Three and keep the hopes of participating in the T20 World Cup alive.

Captain’s knock

Nepal skipper Indu Barma was instrumental in their win over Bahrain on Wednesday. Barma was the most economical with the ball and the highest scorer with the bat.

Bahrain had elected to bat first. As the weather was not clear and the chances of rain were high, Bahrain were expecting to score as many runs as possible and have a good target if the overs were reduced.

However, Bahrain could only reach 76 runs, in the loss of three wickets, in 12.4 overs when the umpires called the ground staff with covers. They would have taken the total further had they not lost the batters to run outs.

Bahrain’s top three, skipper Deepika Rasangika, Rasika Rodrigo and Tharanga Gajanayake, got run out after contributing 23 off 27, 24 off 29 and 12 off 12, respectively. Nepali bowlers gave away 12 runs in extras.

Meanwhile, as the rain took its time to stop, there was not much time left for the game. Thus, Nepal were called to bat with a revised target of 56 runs from seven overs as per the DLS method.

The target was not too high. But the fall of three consecutive wickets early in the game shattered Nepal. By the end of the second over, Samjhana Khadka (5 off 5), Rubi Poddar (1 off 2) and Kabita Joshi (0 off 4) were back in the pavilion.

It was thanks to in-at-three Barma (24 off 7) that Nepal could chase 56 runs with two balls to spare. Barma smashed four fours and a six to guide Nepal to a crucial win.

No 20 overs yet

Meanwhile, Nepal concluded their group stage fixtures without the chance to play for a single full inning of 20 overs.

Nepal’s first group game, against Hong Kong on May 9, was abandoned without a ball bowled: the two teams shared points. When they met Bahrain in the first game on May 10, it was reduced to five overs each.

The same scenario repeated when Nepal and Hong Kong met in their second group game on May 13; it was also reduced to five overs each. Nepal suffered a seven-wicket defeat in that match.

Nepal might get the chance to play for a full inning only if they progress to the Super Three. For that, either Bahrain needs to defeat Hong Kong on Friday, or the match should be abandoned due to rain.