The Nepali cricket team will return home from the T20 World Cup with their heads held high despite yet another near miss in pulling off their first-ever win over a Test nation in Kingstown.

After being agonisingly close to capping one of the biggest upsets in cricket history against South Africa two days ago, the Rhinos, led by the tournament’s youngest captain Rohit Paudel, had Bangladesh, another full member nation, on the ropes with their eye-popping bowling display on Monday.

Nepal opted to field first after winning the toss and wrapped up the Tigers for a low total of 106, with Sompal Kami, Dipendra Singh Airee, Rohit Paudel and Sandeep Lamichhane all dominating with the ball with two wickets apiece.

They had come within two runs of overhauling a slightly bigger target against the Proteas, and the 107-run target was something they would have settled for.

But Nepal’s batters could not cope with the bowling masterclass of Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Mustafizur Rahman, and were eventually all out for 85 against a Bangladeshi side that needed at least one point to ensure progress to the Super Eight stage.

“As a bowling unit, we bowled really well. As a batting unit, we could have done better, especially the top order batters. We could have batted tighter,” Paudel said at the presentation following the loss.

“Bangladesh bowled really well with the new ball and we were under pressure after that. They were asking us challenging questions. We built a little partnership after that, but top order batters could have done better and taken more responsibility.”

It was a game of bowlers at the Arnos Vale Ground that assisted both spinners and seamers.

Fast bowler Sompal Kami struck with the first ball of the innings to dismiss Tanzid Hasan for a golden duck, setting the tone for Nepal.

Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto (four off five) was the next to go when Dipendra Singh Airee bowled him in the next over.

Kami then got rid of Litton Das (10 off 12) in the fourth over, before Towhid Hridoy (9 off 7) fell to Paudel after hitting two fours, which left Bangladesh reeling at 31-4 at the end of the powerplay.

Mahmudullah and Shakib Al Hasan tried to rebuild the innings, limping past 50, but Bangladesh found themselves on the back foot again when Mahmudullah (13 off 13) was frustratingly run out due to miscommunication.

Paudel then got another breakthrough wicket of Bangladesh, trapping Shakib (17 off 22) with a sharp turning ball, before Lamichhane piled more pressure with two crucial wickets of Tanzim (three off five) and Jaker Ali (12 off 26) that also gave him his 100th T20I wickets in his 54th match for Nepal.

But Rishad Hossain added 13 runs off seven balls and Taskin played 12 not out off 15 balls for the last two wickets, which would prove crucial in the end.

-What went wrong against Bangladesh?-

The target seemed achievable.

But Nepal repeated the same mistake with the bat. They failed to make maximum use of the powerplay and their strike rotation was poor. And by the time they were in the stage of taking more risks in the chase, it was already too late.

Against South Africa, when they pushed the game to the last ball, a sense of belief had popped up that Nepal had saved their best with the bat for the crucial meetings after having struggled for much of the year.

But against Bangladesh, they collapsed sooner and were only able to add 24 runs from the powerplay after Tanzim ripped apart the top order including a double-wicket maiden in the third over.

By the time Tanzim bowled his fourth over in the seventh of the innings, he had thrown 21 dots and taken four of the first five wickets —that included the wickets of Kushal Bhurtel (four off eight), Anil Sah (0), Paudel (one off six) and Sundeep Jora (one off eight)—leaving Nepal a mountain to climb.

Tanzim’s 21 dot balls was the most by any bowler in a men’s T20 World Cup match.

Kushal Malla (27 off 40) and Dipendra Singh Airee (25 off 31) indeed started the recovery but Nepal needed 23 balls to finally break the boundary drought as they limped past 50 after 12 overs.

Nepal raised the tempo in the 16th over when Malla hit Mahmudullah for a six and a four to complete a fifty-run partnership with Airee for the sixth wicket, which took them to 77-5. They now needed 30 off the last four overs, which raised hopes of an upset.

A successful chase was still viable for Nepal but inexperience caught up with them.

Mustafizur, who had taken the wicket of Aasif Sheikh to cap an excellent powerplay for Bangladesh, returned for his third over and gave Nepal another nightmare.

Nepal were able to eke out just one run off Mustafizur in the 17th and the loss of Malla in the 16.4 was something the Rhinos could not afford.

Airee hit Taskin with a six in the first ball of the 18th over and added one more in the 17.3 to close the gap on the target but it was the last run Nepal could manage.

After Taskin dismissed Gulsan Jha, Mustafizur bowled five dots in a row in the 19th over before getting Airee’s wicket that ended Nepal’s hopes of ending the tournament on a high note.

Shakib then completed the team’s hat-trick dismissing Kami and Bohara in the successive balls in the 20th over.

Paudel was left disappointed with the way Nepal batted against Bangladesh.

“We need to step up… need to know where to score runs and how to assess conditions. In the field and with the ball, we are up to the mark, we need to improve with the bat,” Paudel said.

-‘Sense of belonging’-

Nepal exited the World Cup without a win in Group D. But their spirited fight in the last two games, especially against South Africa, sent a message that Nepal belong with the elites and could be joining their ranks soon.

“This team has great potential. There are a lot of positives to take, especially the way we played at the Asia Cup and now the World Cup against good teams,” Paudel said. “So I think the sense of belonging is there in the team.”

Paudel reiterated that Nepal need more exposure against full-member nations if they are to grow and improve. Nepal have had the opportunity to play only a handful of games against Test nations. In the World Cup warm-ups as well, they were matched against associate nations Canada and the United States.

“And if you back this team and play good cricket with good teams like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and everyone else… if you play with them [regularly], I think there will be improvement in us.”

One more thing Nepal will regret is their six-wicket defeat against familiar rivals Netherlands in their opening game. A win against the Dutch could have scripted a whole new tournament for the Rhinos.

The no result against Sri Lanka also contributed to Nepal’s poor opening at the World Cup.

But Nepal will have to work on their batting if they are to announce their emergence on the global stage.