Holder, Hope help West Indies thump Nepal, make T20 World Cup Super Eight

AFP

West Indies charged into the Super Eight Stage of the Twenty20 World Cup after the two-times champions defeated Nepal by nine wickets in Mumbai on Sunday, with Jason Holder's four-wicket haul and Shai Hope's half-century setting up the win.

Chasing a modest 134 for their third straight victory after battling knocks by Nepal's Dipendra Singh Airee (58) and Sompal Kami (26 not out), the Caribbeans eased to victory at Wankhede Stadium with 28 balls to spare.

After pace bowler Holder laid the platform earlier, captain Shai Hope (61 not out) and Shimron Hetmyer (46 not out) took the team home with superb knocks to rule Nepal out of the reckoning for the next stage of the tournament.

A little over four months since their confidence-boosting 2-1 T20 series win over a weakened West Indies in Sharjah, Nepal arrived for the clash seeking their first victory in Group C of the World Cup following defeats by England and Italy.

They made a poor start after being asked to bat by table-toppers West Indies with Kushal Bhurtel bowled by Akeal Hosein on the fifth delivery of the innings and skipper Rohit Paudel trapped lbw by Matthew Forde shortly afterwards.

Holder (4-27) ramped up the pressure by having Aasif Sheikh caught in the deep with a loose ball before Nepal limped to 22-3 in six overs, the lowest powerplay score in this edition of the event silencing a large group of Nepal fans.

Several soft dismissals meant Nepal struggled to recover before Airee cut loose and reached his half-century with a big six, while Kami marked his recall to the side with some late fireworks and took them to 133-8 in 20 overs.

More from Sports

News