Nepal entered the five-team ICC Women’s T20I Challenge Trophy in Rwanda as the highest-ranked team. But the team led by Indu Barma, who returned to action after recovering from an injury in January, have started the tournament with a loss.

Barma, during the farewell in Kathmandu on Wednesday, had stressed that Nepal were entering the tournament to win the title. However, Nepal suffered a 44-run defeat to the USA in their opening match at Gahanga Cricket Stadium in the capital city of Kigali on Saturday.

Nepal had won the toss and elected to field first. And they did well with the ball.

Pooja Ganesh (47 off 49), Gargi Bhogle (34 off 27) and Chetna Pagydyala (30 off 37) troubled Nepal with the bat. But that was it. The USA, at the end of the first innings, were restricted to 123/6.

Manisha Upadhyaya picked two wickets, while Kabita Kunwar and Riya Sharma bagged one each.

It was a chaseable target: 124 runs in 120 deliveries. But when Nepal lost the first wicket in the third ball of the very first over, the fall of wickets did not stop.

Nepal did not lose all the wickets. But they could only manage 79/9 in 20 overs.

Bindu Rawal top-scored with 27 off 45, and Kabita Joshi (11 off 20) was the only other to score in double figures for Nepal.

Barma was caught out at 1 off 5, while vice-captain Puja Mahato departed at 5 off 6.

Maahi Madhavan and Taranum Chopra claimed two wickets for the USA. Aditiba Chudasama, Ritu Singh, Lekha Shetty and Sainavi Kambalapalli took one each.

The Challenge trophy features the top teams from the five ICC development regions—Africa, Americas, Asia, East Asia Pacific and Europe—who were not part of the Emerging Nations Trophy.

Nepal will face Italy on Sunday. They will then play the hosts on Wednesday and Vanuatu on Friday. Nepal will then face the four opponents again as it is a double round-robin tournament, meaning Nepal still have chances to emerge at the top of the points table and lift the trophy.