'We Can Give Little Bit Of Happiness...': Nepal Skipper Rohit Paudel Dedicates Player Of The Match Award To Martyrs Of Gen Z Protest

Nepal captain Rohit Paudel dedicated his Player Of The Match award to the martyrs of the Gen Z protest after Nepal beat West Indies by 19 runs in Sharjah. It was the first-ever victory for Nepal against a full-member of the International Cricket Council (ICC). During the post match presentation Paudal said, "Want to dedicate this award to the martyrs back home who participated in the protest. The last month has not been great for us, so if we can give a little bit of happiness to the people of Nepal, I think that would be great."

Why was protest held in Nepal?

Large-scale protests and demonstrations took place in Nepal earlier this month following a nationwide ban on numerous social media platforms.The protests saw violence against public officials and vandalism of government and political buildings.The protests led to the resignations of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and a few other government ministers.Sushila Karki was then appointed as the interim Prime Minister of Nepal. The protests at last died down by September 13.

Nepal stun West Indies

In a match played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, the West Indies won the toss and elected to field first against the Associate Member team. They restricted Nepal to a modest score of 148/8, which the side from the Himalayas compiled riding on vital contributions by their middle order.After West Indies pacers Akeal Hosain sent back Kushal Bhurtel (5) and Jason Holder accounted for Aasif Sheikh (3) to reduce Nepal to 12/2 in the fourth over, skipper Rohit Paudel (38 off 35 balls), Kusal Malla (30 from 21), and Gulsan Jha (22 off 16) helped them reach 148/8 . For the West Indies, Holder claimed 4-20 while Bidaisee bagged 3-29.

Chasing 149 runs for victory, West Indies got off to worst start as Kushal Bhurtel ran out opening batter Kyle Mayers for just 5 runs off eight balls.Nepal bowlers bowled brilliantly against former T20 Word Champions making it difficult for them to score runs. This effort allowed Nepal to restrict the West Indies to 129/9 in the allotted 20overs. For Nepal, Kushal Bhurtel returned with two wickets while Dipendra Singh Airee, Karan KC, Nandan Yadav, Lalit Rajbanshi and Paudel took one wicket each.