“Our place is here” – Message from Paudel after Nepal’s near-failure against South Africa

The performance, however, gave Rohit Paudel, the skipper of Nepal’s enthusiastic squad, enough reason to hold his head high at the post-match press conference. Restricting a strong South African line-up to 115/7 thanks to a brilliant 4/19 from Kushal Bhurtel, and then almost chasing them down in the second innings, meant the Asian team had their place on the world stage.

“I feel like the way we played today; it shows that our place is here,” added Bhurtel. “And the way we played, I think, and the way we hit too, I think we belong here. And that will give us good confidence for the next match against Bangladesh.

Paudel was happy with Nepal’s performance in both aspects of the game on a testing wicket.

“I’m very proud of the unit, especially the way they played today. The way we played in the first innings and the way we batted. Especially in the last moments where we could have capitalized on our side, but it went their way,” he said.

Nepal’s performance was noted by prominent cricketing voices.