Thousands of fans thronged the upgraded TU International Cricket Stadium on Monday for the opening match of the much-awaited second season of Nepal Premier League, billed as the ‘Festival of Himalayas’. And it was a long time coming!

The stadium hadn’t hosted any official matches for a year and eight months. For fans shivering in the evening chill, the wait was worth it. The home of Nepali cricket had on offer a spectacle that was unlike anything previously seen in the country’s decades-long cricketing history.

This was the same venue that had hosted the country’s first international cricket match in 1998 during the ACC Trophy. But back then, it was an open ground, featuring only the barebones of a cricket stadium. The ground had remained the same for nearly three decades, except for some fencing and improved pitch and ground conditions.

The transformation of this ground, as was amply evident Monday, marked a watershed in the country’s cricketing history—reflecting the transformation of the country’s cricketing scene as a whole.

When the fans thronged the 10,000-capacity stadium on Monday to witness the revamped stadium’s first match under the floodlight, and that too on proper seating which replaced the grassy and uneven slopes, the atmosphere felt markedly different.

There were some empty seats visible despite the tickets being sold out on Friday, within 24 hours of the tickets going live, but the passionate cheers from over 9,000 fans did not let the players forget how crazy Nepalis are for cricket.

“I am speechless,” Milind Kumar, the all-rounder from the USA who is playing for Kathmandu Gorkhas, said in the post-match presentation after receiving the player of the match award. “I don’t have any words to describe these electric crowds. No words to describe their energy and passion.”

The fans present at the stadium to witness the beginning of a new era in Nepali cricket also did not hesitate to accept that the Cricket Association of Nepal had provided them with a much-needed infrastructure.

“As I recall, the last time I came here was for one of Nepal’s international matches more than a year ago,” a fan in her late 20s told the Post as she was leaving the stadium early with two other friends after Janakpur Bolts, the team they were supporting, were on the cusp of a defeat.

“Compared to the previous condition of the stadium, today was different,” she said. “Different in the sense that the entry and exit systems were easy, and there were proper places to sit and enjoy the game.”

One of her friends, for whom it was the first live match at the TU Stadium, said that it was an exhilarating moment. “I had never thought that watching a match at the stadium, among energetic fans cheering for almost every delivery, would be so entertaining,” she said.

The opening ceremony also saw CAN shower marigolds from a helicopter as Prime Minister Sushila Karki was on the ground to inaugurate the event. However, the step only troubled the groundstaff to come back with brooms and clear the petals off the pitch.

The NPL organisers had surrounded different areas with zinc sheets to create specific routes for specific gates through which the fans would enter the specific regions for which they had the tickets.

While the fans had an easy transport and entry to the stadium, they did not feel the same when they needed to return home after the match, which began a couple of minutes past 4pm and concluded at around 7:30pm.

After some time, the road outside Tribhuvan University was crowded with ridesharing vehicles, and fans were bargaining after being asked exorbitant prices for rides. Similarly, Balkhu Chowk saw hundreds of fans waiting for buses.

And also, the fans had to deal with winter evening chill, watching the match under the open sky.

“It did not feel much cold by the end of the first inning,” a group of Janakpur Bolts fans discussed while exiting a gate over the TU end. “But during the second inning, it was not easy. We had to grab our hands around to make ourselves warm.”

Even the cricketers felt the same. “Being back at TU after over a year, only to play under the floodlights and to win in the tournament opener, it was a moment to cherish forever,” said Gorkhas’ skipper Karan KC in a post-match interview with journalists. “But it was cold.”

Nevertheless, KC stressed that it was heartwarming to see the crowd. “I had missed this moment,” KC added, wistfully.

The last match the TU International Cricket Stadium hosted was the Nepal vs Netherlands T20I fixture, on March 5, 2024.

As it had been a long time since he played on TU Ground, KC spent a couple of minutes looking at the pitch when he arrived for a warmup before the match against defending champions Janakpur Bolts on Monday.

“The pitch condition of TU keeps varying, sometimes beneficial for batters and sometimes otherwise,” KC said. “As it was the first game after over a year, I decided to bowl first to understand how it rolls out.”

The pitch seemed green, with players expecting it to favour pacers. But it was spinners who turned the conditions to their favour.

“Spinners used the grass to skid the ball as they seemed fit, and it put pressure on the batters,” KC said. “We were happy to restrict Janakpur to 130 because it is not a difficult target in T20. We had a good partnership in the beginning, and a good performance from both local and foreign players helped us win the match.”

Until the first three overs of the match, Kathmandu Gorkhas fans in the stadium remained mum, unsure what to expect. Janakpur had started strongly, and were then at 32 runs. But as KC gave only one run in the fourth over, and Milind Kumar picked up two wickets in the fifth, the stadium reverberated with cheers, coming up from scattered Kathmandu fans.

Lahiru Milantha, last season’s top run scorer, was out after getting stumped, while Janakpur skipper Anil Kumar Sah got caught out on a poor shot on the second ball he faced. Sah was out for a duck.

Kumar again struck in the seventh over, getting the Namibian power-hitter bowled for 2 off 8. Santosh Yadav, in his first over of the match, then joined the list of wicket-takers by finding the stumps and sending Sanjay Krishnamurthi (2 off 6) back to the dugout in the ninth.

As the wickets kept falling, thousands of Janakpur fans were eerily silent, their moments of cheer limited to the exploits of their marquee Aasif Sheikh. But he too departed in the 14th over after scoring the first half-century of the second season.

Sheikh, who added 54 off 41 on the back of six fours and a maximum, was also a victim of stumping, similar to his opening partner Milantha. When Sheikh departed, Janakpur were at 78/5 in 13.3 overs. The damage, it appeared, had already been done.

But it was thanks to a sixth-wicket partnership between Mayan Yadav and Lahiru Samarakoon that took Janakpur to a decent total. The Bolts were at 126/6 when Samarakoon departed for 22 off 21 with one last ball remaining for the first inning to end. Coming to play only one ball, Rupesh Singh hit it for a four, and took the total to 130.

In turn, Kathmandu had a proper start with the bat. By the time Ben Charlseworth left his opening partner Aakash Tripathi in the first ball of the ninth over, the Gorkhas had already scored more than half of the runs they needed. Charlesworth’s departure, after adding 46 off 23 (5 fours, 3 sixes), left Kathmandu comfortable at 70/1.

Tripathi tried anchoring the match with a slow knock, but he departed as the third wicket—Bhim Sharki (3 off 7) was the second wicket—in the 16th over, contributing 39 off 45, and taking the score to over 100 runs. Kumar (19 off 22) and John Simpson (13 off 6) could not score much, but it was sufficient to allow Mohammad Adil Alam, the most sought-after player in the second NPL auction, to finish the match with a six followed by a single.

After Gorkhas’ five-wicket win, Janakpur’s skipper Sah said that their batting lineup failed to put up a proper score. “We will come back stronger,” he said in the post-match conference.

The NPL will see two matches on Tuesday. Chitwan Rhinos take on Karnali Yaks in the first match at 11am, while two star-studded teams—Biratnagar Kings and Pokhara Avengers—will play under the lights.