A day after the David Miller show, the TU International Cricket Stadium witnessed another masterclass on Saturday, this time from another David—David Warner.

Warner smashed 66 off 50 to help Kathmandu Gorkhas post 160/8 on the board against defending champions Lumbini Lions.

Invited to bat first, Warner stayed on the non-striker end while the young Nepali wicketkeeper-batsman Sahil Patel opened for the Gorkhas.

A single as a leg bye in the first ball saw Patel rotate strike with Warner. Warner welcomed Ruben Trumpelmann with a four. It was the first of the nine fours that Warner would hit all around the TU Ground.

Warner is one of the biggest names in world cricket to play in the Nepal Premier League. On Saturday, he showed why he is one of the best to ever grace the game.

It is not easy to bat in TU Ground. It is what the likes of Andre Russell and Moeen Ali have said. But it seems that experience finds a way.

Warner, who stayed not out at 44 against Biratnagar Kings on November 5, smashed the 13th half-century of the season. Coming to the 17th match, only Lokesh Bam has smashed two fifties while one each has come from the bats of Miller (93*), Bangladeshi all-rounder Saif Hassan (87), experienced English batters Dawid Malan (70) and Moeen Ali (58*), West Indian powerhitter Russell (52*) and one of world’s best T20I all-rounders Dipendra Singh Airee (51*). Nepal’s Sompal Kami, Trit Raj Das, Imran Sheikh and Rashid Khan have also managed half-centuries apiece.

There has, meanwhile, not been a century yet in the third season. And it seemed that Warner was hoping to register the first ton, especially when he did not celebrate the fifty.

The grandstands were packed with fans eager to witness Warner’s class.

And Warner delivered with cut, pull, sweep, reverse sweep and even stepping outside the crease. Except for boundaries, he ran for 22 runs, taking singles and doubles.

Warner looked cool with a boundary in an over. It was only after the end of the 15th over that Warner looked ready to take risks and put up a mammoth target on the board.

However, after nine fours and a six, Warner could not hit the fifth ball of the 16th over over the midoff and got caught out by Sundeep Jora in the spell of Sher Malla.

Warner, who is the first player in NPL history to have won all three major ICC World Cups, also built the second-highest partnership—104 runs off 80 balls—of the season with Patel. The highest was only three runs away—the 107-run partnership between Biratnagar’s Lokesh Bam and Imran Sheikh against Janakpur.

After Patel’s departure, Warner, who is 40 years and 11 days old, needed another good partner. And the Gorkhas decided to have pacer Karan KC, who can also hit big, enter the crease at three. Two overs and three balls later, with 11 more runs added, Warner was out.

And then the wickets did not stop falling for Kathmandu. After KC’s departure in the first ball of the 17th over, the Gorkhas could only add 43 more runs at the loss of five more wickets—William Bosisto (0 off 1), Rashid Khan (1 off 3), Jahandad Khan (6 off 3), Md Adil Alam (1 off 1), and Santosh Yadav (2 off 1). It was the Sri Lankan batting allrounder Sagan Arachige who was crucial for Kathmandu after Warner.

Arachige smashed a quickfire 34 off 15.

It was not easy for Kathmandu batters to play against a disciplined bowling of Lumbini, which gave only three runs as extras. Abhishesh Gautam, meanwhile, was the most economical for the Lions, as he gave only 15 runs and picked two wickets in his four overs. Trumpelmann and Malla also bagged two wickets each.

The way Warner and Patel started for the Gorkhas, the total was expected to reach close to 200 as nine wickets remained. But it only looked possible until the 10th over, when the opening duo had taken the score to 90. In the next 10 overs, Kathmandu could only score 70 more.

But the target of 161 felt like a mountain for the Lions.

Lumbini’s collapse started from the second ball of the second over when D’Arcy Short (4 off 7) was caught behind in the spell of Jahandad Khan. 

Lions’ batting order—Aasif Sheikh (1 off 2), Rohit Kumar Paudel (0 off 2), Niroshan Dickwella (14 off 7), Dilip Nath (0 off 2), Grant Stewart (6 off 3) and Trumpelmann (11 off 16)—kept on crumbling until the 10th over.

The match, meanwhile, didn’t end as comfortably as Kathmandu wanted. From 49/7, Gautam and Sundeep Jora built a 46-run partnership for the eighth wicket. It was only after Jora (44 off 45) departed as the ninth wicket that Lumbini were out of the chase. They were bundled out at 124 runs in 19.3 overs. It was Lumbini’s first loss of the season, which came in the fifth game.

Jahandad picked four wickets in his four overs, KC bagged two, and Santosh Yadav, Rashid Khan and Shahab Alam claimed one each for Kathmandu.

The tactical insights and reading of the game by Warner, who did not have much to do with the ball, constantly helped the Kathmandu bowlers sharpen their execution.

Warner, the player of the match, helping young Abhishesh Gautam of Lumbini to tie his laces was received with a huge applause and cheers from the stands as well.

It was Warner’s third NPL match for Kathmandu. And it seems Warner will leave a big mark by the end of the season—if possible, by helping the Gorkhas lift their maiden NPL title. Kathmandu are second in the points table with six points from four games. They still have three more league-stage fixtures remaining—against Chitwan Rhinos, Sudurpaschim and Pokhara Avengers—to cement their position in the top four and enter the playoffs.

Yet, even amid his tactical impact on the field, Warner found himself caught in a bizarre moment of déjà vu.

Fielding near the bowler, he instinctively grabbed a towel to clear the heavy evening dew off the ball after a quick double by Rashid and Yadav. The intervention didn’t go unnoticed—prompting the umpires to penalise the Gorkhas five runs for unauthorised ball-maintenance, a quirky hiccup in an otherwise eventful outing.

It happened the same day that Warner’s former teammate Usman Khawaja claimed that the entire Australian team knew about the 2018 “Sandpapergate” scandal in Cape Town and said they always employed the tactic during the previous Test at Port Elizabeth. Warner was handed a 12-month suspension from international cricket after that incident. 

But the incidents, neither at Kirtipur nor Cape Town, did not matter much. There were many fans in the grandstands who denied security’s request to leave after the match and kept chanting “Warner…Warner” for a couple of minutes straight. 

“It has been a good experience here so far,” Warner said in the post-match presentation. Then pointing towards the fans who were still chanting his name, he added, “I will definitely come back next year. The support and hospitality here is unbelievable.”

Warner then took a selfie with the fans and entered the dressing room.