Kushal Bhurtel loves the TU International Cricket Ground, and it is two-sided.

It was five years ago when a young Bhurtel entered the home of Nepali cricket for the first time as a player of the senior team.

In his first T20I debut, Bhurtel, who came as an opener, smashed 62 off 46 in the nine-wicket win over the Netherlands in the first match of a friendly tri-series, comprising Malaysia, on April 17, 2021.

It was a double round-robin friendly series, with a final between the top two teams. Nepal won the series, defeating the Netherlands by 142 runs in the final on April 24. Nepal had posted a mammoth target of 239 on the back of Bhurtel’s 77 off 53.

It was not Bhurtel’s second fifty, though. It was his fourth. Bhurtel had smashed two straight fifties—61 not out against Malaysia on April 17 and 62 against the Netherlands on April 20—after his debut one. He missed consecutive fifties in the first five matches as he got out at 16 off 12 against Malaysia on April 22.

Donning the national jersey with the U19 side in 2016, Bhurtel announced his entry to the senior team in style at home.

Five years later, Bhurtel, now 29, with a hundred and 13 half-centuries, was at the TU Ground on Tuesday for his 76th T20I. It was his 21st T20I in Kirtipur.

Bhurtel was back at TU for the national team in T20 after two years. The last time he played a T20I at TU was against the Netherlands on March 2, 2024. He scored 20 in that match.

Bhurtel’s last 50 at TU was against the same opponent—the UAE—he battered at the same venue on Tuesday.

Nepal had posted 162/8 after batting first against the UAE on October 27, 2023; Bhurtel had scored 50 off 29. But Nepal lost it by four wickets as the UAE chased it in 19.5 overs.

Meanwhile, when Bhurtel started firing shots against the UAE on Tuesday, he did not stop until he had won it for Nepal.

Skipper Dipendra Singh Airee decided to field first. The UAE struggled with Nepal’s bowling, especially with Sandeep Lamichhane.

Nepal’s leading wicket-taker, Lamichhane, bowled one of his best bowling figures in T20I cricket as he picked three wickets and gave only six runs in four overs, which included a wicket-maiden. The visitors finished the first innings at 128/8.

Lamichhane has had better innings with the ball. Just a day ago, Lamichhane’s figure against the UAE at TU was 4-1-6-3. His best was 4-0-9-5 against Kenya in August 2022.

The three wickets on Tuesday see Lamichhane’s T20I wicket-tally reach 136 in 74 matches. He now has more wickets in T20Is than ODIs, where he has 135 wickets in 66 matches.

“Nepal will win when Kushal Bhurtel does his job with the bat and Sandeep Lamichhane with the ball,” said commentator Andrew Leonard during the broadcast of the match on Kantipur Max.

Bhurtel was smashing boundaries when Leonard said so, as he was with the fans on the stands.

Bhurtel smashed 84 off 57 and stayed not out as Nepal chased 129 in 15.5 overs with eight wickets to spare. It was Bhurtel’s third-highest individual score, 104* against the Philippines and 92* against the USA being the top two.

Endearingly called ‘mama’ (uncle in English) by fans, Bhurtel’s last fifty was against Oman in October last year. He then could only score 17, 29, 5, 1, 43 and 16 against Samoa, England, Italy, the West Indies, Scotland and the UAE, respectively.

The highest since 69 off 51 against Oman last year was 43 against the UAE at TU Ground on Monday, suggesting Bhurtel gets some extra motivation at the home ground.

Bhurtel now has 1,985 T20I runs in 76 matches (74 innings). With 15 more runs, he will become only the second Nepali with 2,000 T20I runs after Airee (2,180 runs).

Bhurtel even got lucky at his favourite ground on Tuesday. He was dropped at 34 in 5.4 overs.

Kushal Malla (19 off 17) and Airee (23 off 17) contributed in the win as debutant Santosh Yadav gave away his wicket at 1 off 4.

Having suffered a six-wicket loss in their first international match at the floodlit TU Ground in the first of the two-match friendly ‘Associate El Clásico’, Nepal needed a win in the second match as they head for the ICC CWC League 2 tri-series, comprising the UAE and Oman.

Nepal face the UAE in the first match of the tri-series on April 25.