Thousands of Nepali fans thronged Wankhede Stadium on Sunday looking for some consolation, if not exactly a victory. After taking them on a rollercoaster ride against England, Nepal had let them down with a crushing 10-wicket defeat against Italy.

Against the West Indies on Sunday, Nepal sought to redeem themselves while their fans wanted something, anything, to rally behind the team.

“I knew it would not be easy for our boys to defeat the likes of the West Indies,” Mohan Adhikary, a Nepal fan who watched the match live at the stadium, told the Post after the match. “But I at least expected them to put up some challenge.”

Nepal had defeated the West Indies 2-1 in a three-match T20I series in Sharjah, UAE, in September last year. It was also a reason Nepali fans hoped for a better performance on Sunday.

But like against Italy, Nepal proved toothless on all fronts against the Carribean side on Sunday, succumbing to a nine-wicket defeat. With that, the Rhinos were out of the Super 8 contention.

The West Indies won the toss and decided to bowl first.

“I have been struggling with tosses lately,” Hope said at the post-match presentation. “I don’t think I have won one in about six months. So it was nice to actually decide what I wanted to do for once.”

Hope’s decision to bowl first was based on a bit of moisture he found on the surface. “And the pitch is a little darker than we expected. So we wanted to utilise that as much as we can,” he said after electing to field first.

Had they won the toss, Nepal would have also chosen to bowl first, skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel said.

“Batting first is a difficult task,” Paudel added. “But we have to follow our process and bat as long as we can.”

Nepal did bat throughout the allocated 20 overs. But the runs didn’t come the way they would have wanted.

From losing Kushal Bhurtel in the very first over, Nepal managed to cross the 50-run mark only in the 12th over, and that too with half of the team already back to the pavilion.

Nepal lost their sixth wicket in the last ball of the 15th over, which led Dipendra Singh Airee to start his partnership with Sompal Kami.

Kami is the only player in the squad to have played in all three T20 World Cup Nepal participated—2014, 2024 and 2026.

When asked about changes in the squad compared to the match against Italy, Paudel, after the toss, had informed that Kami was replacing Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi. When asked the reason for the change, he replied: “Not much, but the wicket looks good, and I think Sompal will be much more effective here.”

Kami bowled only two overs and gave away 23 runs. While he was not effective with the ball, Kami performed well with the bat.

When Kami joined Airee, Nepal were at 73/6. When Airee departed and their partnership for the seventh wicket broke, Nepal were 127 in 19.2 overs.

Airee (58 off 47) was caught out after he became only the second Nepali batsman to score a T20 World Cup half-century. The first to do so was Subash Khakurel against Afghanistan in 2014. Against England, Airee scored 44 off 29 to become Nepal’s first batsman to score 2,000 T20I runs.

Meanwhile, Kami stayed not out at 26 off 15 as the Rhinos managed 133/8 against the West Indies.

Jason Holder bagged four wickets, while Akeal Hosein, Matthew Forde, Shamar Joseph and Roston Chased picked one each. Five of Nepal’s wickets were from catches, while Paudel got struck leg before, and Bhurtel and Gulshan Kumar Jha (11 off 14) were clean bowled.

“I think the toss was very important,” Kami said in the post-match press conference. “We will come back stronger.”

Nepal’s target of 134 seemed very difficult to defend as the West Indies are known for their batting prowess. And it reflected when they began the chase.

When Brandon King punched the ball through the cover area for a boundary in the first delivery of the second inning by Karan KC, the Caribbean side’s intent was clear: to finish the game as soon as possible.

Though King (22 off 17) departed in 5.3 overs as his shot could not get past Bhurtel in the mid-on region, skipper Hope and power-hitter Shimron Hetmyer did not let anyone else to pad up and come to the crease.

With three sixes and five fours, Hope stayed not out at 61 off 44, while Hetmyer, who smashed two sixes and four fours in 32 deliveries, missed his fifty by four runs.

With the win, the West Indies became the first team in the tournament to guarantee a spot in the Super 8. “We wanted to lift the trophy as soon as we landed here,” Hope said. “But there is a process to it, and we are taking one game at a time.”

The West Indies captain had praises for Nepal. “It is great to see them [Nepal] playing well,” Hope said. “Still learnings for them…As long as we are playing cricket at this level, we gotta make sure we are learning.”

Hope also stressed the way Associates are making their mark in white-ball cricket. “So, I don’t think that Full Members should be neglecting their true skills and performance.”

When the Post asked if the West Indies would send their best squad if they faced Nepal in the future, Hope said, “We will give our best when we get any opportunity to play against strong teams, regardless if they are an Associate or a Full Member.”

As Nepal are struggling to find a composure against good teams in the World Cup, concerns have been rising regarding Nepal’s exposure.

West Indies’ head coach Darren Sammy also recently said that it was the responsibility of the big cricketing nations to grow the game by playing against Associates.

Afghanistan’s skipper Rashid Khan, after the captain’s press conference on February 6, had told the Post that they would love to play Nepal.

“It would be great,” Kami told the Post after the match against the West Indies. “We are ready to host them.”

Nepal will now play their last match of the T20 World Cup against Scotland on Wednesday.