Only Karan KC seemed to know how to defeat a top-tier team like Scotland on their home turf when the Rhinos marched through Forthill, Dundee, for the first game of the ICC CWC League 2 tri-series on Monday.

However, after Nepal pulled off an incredible last-ball win over the Scottish side, KC said he didn’t remember what happened next.

The drama reached a fever pitch at Forthill when the scores were level and the visitors needed one run off the final delivery. But they had just one wicket in hand. A single would seal victory. A dot ball or a wicket would mean a tie and a Super Over.

Scotland’s Mark Watt bowled the final ball of the game down the leg side. Wicketkeeper Matthew Cross couldn’t collect cleanly. KC raced to the non-striker’s end. But at the striker’s end, Rijan Dhakal was adjudged run out by the square-leg umpire.

Yet, when the main umpire ruled the ball as wide, Nepal had already scored the winning run—and KC lifted his bat in the air while Dhakal lay on the pitch in disbelief, unaware that Nepal had won and he was not out with one ball of the second inning to spare.

“I was certain the umpire would call it wide, the ball had passed down the leg side without touching my pad,” KC told the Post after the win. “I was expecting a full toss that I could run on. After that, I don’t remember anything. Fans stormed the field. I was carried off to the pavilion. Even now, it feels unreal.”

The pitch invasion evoked scenes from English cricket in the 1980s, when fans would rush in after a big win to lift their players, while the cricketers sprinted away from the crowd with a 100-metre sprint.

Nirmal Poudel and Thaneshwor Gyawali, two Nepalis who had travelled from Kathmandu via London to Dundee to watch Nepal play, stated that they too couldn’t believe the win. “Little kids were screaming for Nepal all day long. That boosted the crowd and energised the players,” Gyawali said.

Nepali fans had come in good numbers from across the UK and Ireland to support their team far from home. The numbers would have been higher, but as the Scotland Cricket website, on Tuesday night, showed that the tickets, priced at £20, were sold out, many cancelled their trip to Dundee.

But the tickets were still being sold outside the venue. The ground can hold about 1,000 spectators. Around 500 showed up on Monday, of which more than 400 were Nepal fans.

Valentine boy to miracle man

Given the conditions and the surface of Dundee, chasing 297 seemed not just difficult but nearly impossible for Nepal. Their highest-ever successful chase had been 287, achieved twice, once against Namibia in 2023 and last year against Canada, both in Kirtipur.

Their previous best chase away from home was 255, when Paras Khadka’s 115 off 109 balls helped Nepal defeat the UAE inside 45 overs in June 2019. But now, thanks to Karan’s unbeaten 65 off 41 balls with 3 fours and 4 sixes, Nepal chased down 297, their highest-ever successful chase in ODIs.

“This is my role. If I don’t finish the game, I’m not Karan KC,” KC said. “Whether I’m bowling or batting, my job is to finish. Sometimes I feel I should bat higher up. But I know my role.”

He added, “The team believes I can take the game to the end and finish it. They also know I’m capable of batting up the order, but there are others for that role right now.”

Everyone in the top and middle orders had chipped in. KC and Gulshan Kumar Jha stitched a vital 54-run stand in 44 balls for the seventh wicket, taking Nepal close. “I just had to finish,” KC said. “It was tough early on. We had discussed getting the match to the final five overs and chasing the remaining runs however possible. Even at 10 runs an over, it was chaseable. But Jha’s dismissal made things tougher.”

Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh had laid the foundation for the win, adding 72 in 12 overs. “That start gave us rhythm,” KC said. “With 25 needed off the last 12, I knew I had to hit at least two boundaries to make the final over manageable. Luckily, we got 18 in the 49th over.”

He added, “With three balls left and five to get, I knew I had to clear the ropes. If I didn’t even hit a single boundary, it would’ve been shameful. The fourth and fifth balls weren’t quite in my hitting zone. The fourth one looked like a six, but the wind held it back and we only got two.”

A reminder of that Canada miracle

This wasn’t the first time KC pulled off a miracle for Nepal. In 2018, in Windhoek, chasing 195 runs against Canada, Nepal were 144/9 in 42.1 overs. KC, batting at No. 10, struck 42 not out off 31 balls with 3 fours and 4 sixes to win the match by 1 wicket.

That win was the reason Nepal earned ODI status. Now, again with Nepal languishing at the bottom of League 2 with just 6 points from 12 games and their ODI status under threat, KC produced another miracle. This win was just their third in 13 matches, but it pushed them past the UAE into seventh place with 8 points.

“It’s hard to compare, but both innings, back in Canada and today in Scotland, were magical. Karan dai is our miracle man. He’s keeping Nepal cricket alive,” Nepal’s skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel said after the match. “We were nervous watching him, but we trusted him to finish it. To win from that situation—it was magical.”

Opener Kushal Bhurtel added, “Karan dai is always our crisis man. He’s done it before, and we believed he would do it again.”

Law’s era begins

This was Nepal’s first official match under new head coach Stuart Law, and they marked it with a record chase.

“We were nervous during the chase, but also pumped every time a boundary came. Coach told us to stay calm,” said Paudel.

Law, a former Australian batter who played the 1996 World Cup, coached the USA to the Super Eight of the recent T20 World Cup after beating Pakistan and Ireland. He has previously coached Bangladesh and was an assistant coach with Sri Lanka.

Netherlands next

Nepal’s win was good news not just for themselves but also for League 2 leaders—the USA and the Netherlands. They are in a tight race with Scotland for the top spots.

Nepal face the Netherlands next in Dundee on Wednesday. It will be the first game of the tri-series for the Dutch side and they will be without star allrounder Bas de Leede, who is playing county cricket for Durham after completing his domestic series against Scotland and the UAE.

“Our goal here is to win all four games,” said an upbeat Bhurtel.

Captain Rohit added that the playing conditions in Scotland were not as difficult as they thought. “Batting felt okay,” he said. “But we need to tighten our bowling, especially in the first 10 overs, where we’re leaking runs. Death bowling is improving but still needs work.”