Nepal failed to qualify for the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup for the first time since 2018 after they suffered a four-wicket defeat against Hong Kong in the third-place playoff of the ACC Men’s T20 Premier Cup in Al Amerat, Oman on Saturday.

The Rhinos entered the tournament as one of the top favourites having won the last edition of the ACC Premier Cup to qualify for their first Asia Cup, and also boasting their recent success of securing their ticket to the 2024 T20 World Cup—their only second World Cup and first since World T20 in 2014 in Bangladesh.

Last year, in the build up to their Premier Cup success, they had taken the cricketing world by storm with a masterclass performance, winning 11 of their last 12 matches of the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier—introducing them as a rising power of cricket.

On Friday, they lost to bitter rivals the United Arab Emirates in the semi-finals that shattered their dream of booking a ticket to their second Asia Cup.

Now, they are out of the map of another Asian tournament.

Despite a fine bowling display from the Nepalis, Hong Kong chased down the 140-run target with three balls to spare.

Nepal’s key worry lies in their batting inconsistency, which has kept on haunting the team and has been questionable since the turn of this year.

When Monty Desai took over the Nepal job in February last year, he promised to bring consistency in the team.

“The players are skillful and it’s about how to bring consistency, understand their strengths and execute those strengths on the field,” he said.

The Indian coach indeed transformed Nepal’s batting into a strength that no one had ever witnessed before as the Nepal team experienced a golden year in 2023.

But the batting headache has resurfaced.

In the inaugural tri-series of the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 2023-2027 involving Namibia and the Netherlands in February, their poor performance with the bat cost them three of the four home matches. They also had a below-average performance in the subsequent T20I Triangular Series against the same sides, losing the title to the Netherlands. Their tour of Hong Kong was also a campaign to forget as they lost the Hong Kong T20I Tri-Series to Papua New Guinea in March.

Captain Rohit Paudel conceded that Nepal’s batting has been below-par in the Premier Cup.

“If we see our batting strength, we have done very well in the last one-and-half years,” Paudel said after the match. “But we did not step up in this tournament. We will have to reflect on that.”

Kushal Bhurtel has been one of the biggest flops in the tournament. The opener was dismissed for a duck on Saturday for a third successive match.

Skipper Paudel, Kushal Malla and Gulsan Jha have also been big disappointments.

Opener Aasif Sheikh scored a half-century against Qatar and 40 against Hong Kong in the group stage, but failed to even touch the double digit figures in his last three outings.

The only bright spot of Nepal’s batting line-up in this tournament was Dipendra Singh Airee

The 24-year-old all-rounder entered the history books by becoming the third man to smash six sixes in an over in an international men’s T20 match during his unbeaten knock of 21-ball 64 in Nepal’s group match against Qatar, joining the ranks of Yuvraj Singh and Kieron Pollard in achieving the rare feat.

It was Airee’s 44 not out that dragged Nepal to 139-8 against Hong Kong in the third-place playoff on Saturday.

Asked if Airee, who also took four wickets in the Premier Cup, could get a promotion to the top order instead of coming in number six or seven, Paudel said, “Dipendra has played as a finisher and it has worked so far. But it did not work in this series.”

Paudel added, “Actually, nothing worked well in this series.”

Airee also topped Nepal’s bowling tally with eight wickets, two of them coming in defeat against Hong Kong.

Abinash Bohara also provided the strength to Nepal’s bowling unit taking seven scalps.

Lalit Rajbanshi took six wickets in Al Amerat but his last over against Hong Kong proved too expensive as Nasrulla Rana managed eight runs off three balls to guide Hong Kong to an impressive victory.

But Hong Kong truly owed their triumph to their opener Anshuman Rath, who defied Sompal Kami’s lethal bowling and scored an unbeaten 65 off 50.

“It’s a massive win,” said Hong Kong captain Nizakat Khan after recording their fifth win over Nepal in the T20Is.

“We have done really well in this tournament. I am happy with my boys and very proud of them. We have stayed calm.”

Khan went on, “Credit goes to Anshuman. He carried his bat all the way. When he was there, we knew we could win this game. He took responsibility as a senior player and that is all we wanted.”

“It was a collective team effort.”

The Premier Cup tragedy is alarming for the Rhinos, who are set to travel to the West Indies and the United States to participate in the T20 World Cup in less than two months.

Desai will now need to quickly find the missing puzzle in his team, especially the batting order, if they are to show the world they have substance, courage and determination to fight when they travel to the global showpiece in June.