At last, Nepal won the toss in their last and fourth group-stage fixture of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup against Scotland at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday. And it allowed skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel to decide on what the team wanted to do first for once.

Paudel decided to bowl first against the Scottish side in front of yet another loud crowd at Wankhede. “The wicket has been difficult for four-five overs, a difficult task, but we can capitalise,” he said after deciding to bowl first. “Must make most of first overs.”

Similarly, it was Nepal’s first night match at Wankhede, and at night, Wankhede, lying close to the Arabian Sea, gets dew—a condition often seen as a difficulty for the team bowling second.

However, it did not go as he planned. Paudel had believed that the pitch would help the bowlers in the earlier part of the innings, so he wanted to bag early wickets.

But it was the pair of Scotland’s George Munsey, and Michael Jones, opening with him, who dominated early with the bat. At the end of the powerplay, Nepal could not bag any wickets, and the Scottish side, with the left-hand right-hand combination, were at 52.

Bowling against Scotland was not easy for Nepal, as there were a good number of players in the Scottish side who had played in the Nepal Premier League. Alongside Munsey, Brendon McMullen, Michael Leask and Mark Watt have come and played in the “Festival of Himalayas.”

They were not letting the momentum go to waste. And when Sandeep Lamichhane came to bowl his first over of the inning in the seventh over, he was welcomed with a maximum by right-hander Jones, who went on to complete his half-century, which was studded with two sixes and six fours, in 31 deliveries.

As Nepal had started with a change to the squad—Sundeep Jora replacing Karan KC—the Rhinos were bound, or even prepared, to use their part-time bowlers. And Paudel himself stood up to throw the ball for the first time in the ongoing World Cup.

It was his second over of the inning when Paudel came to bowl the 10th over. In the last ball, he broke the first-wicket partnership of 80 runs between Munsey and Jones by getting the former caught by Sundeep Jora in the long-on region.

Scotland crossed the 100-run mark at the end of 12 overs, and with nine wickets in hand, they were not looking to slow down.

Brandon McMullen was given a lifeline by Jora as he dropped him at 15 in 13.1 overs. A top edge saw the ball go high up before falling close to the bowler’s end in the mid-on region. Jora sat down as the ball came down, and it hit the ground before he grabbed it.

Dangerman Jones got out in 15.2 overs. He was clean bowled by Sompal Kami. When Jones departed, he had taken the team to 132 runs with the help of 71 runs off 45 deliveries. Two deliveries later, Kami gave another relief by getting McMullen (25 off 19) caught and bowled.

Scotland then had two fresh sets of gloves on the crease—skipper Richie Berrington and experienced Tom Bruce.

Berrington was also dropped at 2 by Lokesh Bam at long-off. Bam was too ahead of the boundary line, and he could not get his hand around the ball despite jumping and touching it. As a result, it went for a six. But Berrington (10 off 6) was not dropped two balls later by Jora. At the end of 17 overs, Scotland were at 145/4.

Matthew Cross (4 off 2) was then clean bowled as Scotland’s fifth wicket by Nandan Yadav in the 18th over.

Bruce (5 off 6) was also clean bowled by Kami in the fourth ball of the 19th over. It was Kami’s third wicket of the inning, which he celebrated with the ‘zen celebration’.

From 80/1 in the first 10 overs, Scotland could only manage 78 more, in the loss of five more wickets in the next nine overs. When they began the last over of the inning, the Scots were at 158/6.

While Leask and Watt were attempting to go big in the last six balls, Yadav bowled calmly and gave no boundaries until the last ball. He even had Leask (4 off 8) caught behind the stumps with a slow bouncer in the fourth ball of the 20th over.

At the end, a six from Watt saw Scotland manage 170/7. Nepal now need 171 off 120 balls to get their consolation win in the World Cup. The Rhinos have not won any match in the T20 World Cup after their maiden participation in 2014.

It is the third T20I encounter between Nepal and Scotland. In the first two matches they played in a tri-series in June last year, both had won a match each.