The Nepali men’s senior team was handed their third straight defeat in the Top End T20 Series in Darwin, Australia, on Monday, as they went down to Melbourne Stars Academy by 31 runs while chasing 176 runs at TIO Stadium.

A 120-run partnership for the second wicket between Thomas Rogers and Blake Macdonald saw Melbourne Stars forget the pain of an early wicket.

Their skipper and opening batsman Campbell Kellaway had departed for 2 off 3 in the third ball of the first over by Sompal Kami. However, his partner Rogers stayed with Macdonald to build up a quality partnership, contributing 44 off 30 and 74 off 47, respectively.

By the time Macdonald departed as the second wicket in 13.1 overs, Melbourne Stars were at 122 runs. Rogers went on to complete his half-century and departed at 65 off 46 as the fourth wicket in the 18th over.

Melbourne Stars lost seven wickets in the first inning with other batters scoring only 30 runs altogether.

Of the six bowlers used by Nepal, Sandeep Lamichhane bagged three wickets while Kami and Shahab Alam picked one each. There were two run-outs for the Australian side.

In turn, Nepal, who were chasing the target for the third time in three games, could not complete the chase as the batting order stayed inconsistent as in the previous two losses—against hosts Northern Territory Strike on Friday and Bangladesh ‘A’ on Saturday.

Nepal had fallen short of 42 runs against NT Strike and 32 runs against the South Asian neighbour.

Opener Kushal Bhurtel departed after a cameo on Monday, scoring 25 off 13, while his partner Aasif Sheikh went on to cross the 50-run mark. When Sheikh departed as the fourth wicket in 16.1 overs, Nepal were at 120 runs, requiring 56 runs in 23 deliveries.

Skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel had scored 33 off 31 before departing as the third wicket. Kushal Malla (11 off 11) was the only other Nepali batsman to reach double figures.

Melbourne Stars had used eight bowlers in the game, and four of them remained wicketless. Doug Warren and Austin Anelzark claimed two each while Aryan Sharma and Chris Howe bagged one each.

Inconsistent batting

Each of the 11 teams in the tournament is playing six games each in the single round-robin league stage; the top four teams progress to the semi-final stage and compete for the trophy. Nepal’s chances for the title are now almost over as, with three losses, the Rhinos are placed 10th in the table. They are above Australian Capital Territory on net run rate.

Nepal have lost the three games batting second and failing to chase the target, a role of the batters. However, Nepali batters have been struggling to remain consistent and score sufficiently.

Malla, who made a comeback to the national team after being dropped when the Rhinos travelled to the UK in June, is currently the highest run scorer of the team in the tournament.

Malla has scored 104 runs in three games. He scored 34 off 26 against NT Strike and stayed not out at 59 off 47 against the young Tigers. He is currently ranked eighth in the list of batters with the most runs in the tournament.

Sheikh’s 53 off 49 and Paudel’s 33 off 31 against Melbourne Stars were the only two instances when Nepali batters other than Malla crossed the 30-run mark in the tournament.

Nepal’s head coach Stuart Law has also been making changes to the squad regularly in the tournament. Lokesh Bam, who failed to deliver in the first two games, was replaced by Bhim Sharki on Monday while Aarif Sheikh was also brought in for his first appearance in the series.

However, both Sharki and Aarif were not up to the mark on Monday. Sharki departed for 1 off 2 while Aarif was not out at 8 off 9.

Nepal now have three games remaining in the series. They will face Hobart Hurricanes Academy on Tuesday, Melbourne Renegades Academy on Wednesday and Pakistan Shaheens on Friday.

Pakistan Shaheens, Melbourne Renegades and Hobart Hurricanes are placed second, sixth and seventh in the table. Shaheens and Renegades have two wins in three games while Hurricanes have one in three. The results suggest that Nepal will not have an easy time in the last three league-stage encounters.