Ace spinner Sandeep Lamichhane’s second innings captaincy of the  men’s national cricket team of Nepal  got off to an awe-inspiring resounding  winning start.

He led his side to a very impressive 44 run victory over  the United Arab Emirates(UAE) in the final to  win the 2026 ACC Men’s Premier  Cup ODI cricket tournament held in Malaysia recently. They concluded the competition with five wins and one defeat.

The championship triumph earned them a place in the final round of the 2027 Asia Cup ODI cricket championship.

By and large, consistent and effective  performance  of bowlers throughout the competition largely  contributed to the team’s success.

It was Team Nepal’s  huge and remarkable bounce back  success story. Solid, consistent and confident batting in the decisive final game helped them come out trumps at the end of the day.

Electing to bat  first ,openers Aasif Sheikh and Arjun Kumal  shared a vital 97 runs partnership for the  opening wicket.

Despite dismal of Kumal for an impressive  43 runs with the help of 6  fours, man of the match Sheikh’s   outstanding century was pivotal in the team’s  highly competitive and challenging total of 302 runs that proved difficult  and arduous for the opposition to chase.

He hit 102  runs  off 106 balls, which included 8 fours and 4 sixes. Following Sheikh’s  dismissal, former skipper Rohit  Paudel and allrounder  Gulshan Jha steadied  the innings by sharing a crucial 67  run partnership for the fourth wicket when it mattered most.

Paudel  struck  a disciplined 40 runs comprising 2 fours. On the other hand Jha batted aggressively, hitting 3 fours and 4  sixes in his knock of 52 runs off 48 balls.

The bowlers successfully defended the total and did  not let the  big opportunity to win the championship go begging by.

Once again they put in a solid concerted effort with each bowler contributing to cease the opposition from  batting to  victory

With 3 wickets for 49 runs Karan KC was the leading wicket taker, followed by Lalit Rajbhansi  who accounted for 2 wickets for 43.The other five bowlers picked a wicket each.

Midway through the innings Rahul Chopra who struck an impressive  unbeaten 100 runs and  Sohaib Khan’s stubborn  knock of 52  runs raised UAE’s hopes of a win.

However, the bowlers ensured the team victory as they kept pressure on batters by taking wickets at regular intervals to dismiss them all out for 269 runs.

Prior to Team Nepal’s success ,their highly unexpected insipid performance, coupled with a stunning winless streak  in the crucial ICC World Cup League 2 triangular series against the Netherlands and Namibia in the Netherlands forced  national selectors into making changes  in captaincy and team lineup for the Malaysian tournament.

Having retained the captaincy of one day  international(ODI) squad, Lamichhane was fully  aware of the challenge he  and his team faced.

With the team’s ODI  at stake, the team could  not afford another mediocre performance. The competition had added  importance  because the winners advanced to  the  final round of the 2027  Asia Cup.

Given the  intriguing position they were in, they had to deliver the result at all costs to bounce back and  make amends for their   highly disappointing outcome in the Netherlands.

Skipper Lamichhane spearheaded the team with  a blend of experienced and much talked about talented upcoming players who replaced a handful of regular players.

They  were in Group A  clubbed with Bahrain, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

Keeping into consideration Team Nepal’s  dominant record against the opponents, they were overwhelming  favorites to reach the last four.

As expected they won three straight matches ,registering emphatic wins and remained undefeated.

In the opening fixture they fully displayed their strengths to  wallop  Bahrain by 7 wickets.

The bowlers had a big hand in the team’s easy and convincing win. Bowling first they bowled superbly to end the opposition innings for a meager 87 runs in 36.2 overs.

Spinning maestro Lamichhane who had gone  wicketless in the Netherlands tri-series showcased his bowling ability by scalping 5 wickets in 10 overs for just 14 runs. Such was his consistency and  accuracy that he bowled 4  median overs.

He was well supported by experienced pacer Karan KC . He peaked his performance to end up with 2 wickets in 8 overs  for 14 runs. He had  4 median overs to his credit also.

Spinner Lalit Rajbhansi also  bowled exceedingly well to consolidate the bowling attack further. In his 6.2 overs  spell he claimed 3 wickets for 20 runs, including one median over.

Apparently, the bowlers made the  run chase easy  for the batters. They were under very little pressure to  surpass the paltry total.

The highly talented opener Arjun Kumal in place of established  Kushal Bhurtel cashed in on the opportunity to remain undefeated on 36 with the help of 5 hits to the boundary. He firmly held the innings together despite the team losing a few quick wickets .

He and former skipper Rohit Paudel who remained not out on 19 runs guided the team to a convincing 7 wickets victory in the 21st over.

In the second match, Nepal churned out an impressive performance to  comfortably prevail over hosts  Malaysia by six wickets.

For the second successive game, bowling first the bowlers put in a solid performance to pin down the opponent to a small total of 103 runs in 32.3 overs, making batters’ task easy and less challenging .

Speedster KC produced a sterling performance, claiming 4 wickets for 23 runs in 7.3 overs, including 2 maiden overs.

Likewise, Rajbhansi  put in a  consistent  performance . In 6 overs he bagged 2 wickets for 19 runs with the help of a maiden over.

Skipper Lamichhane, Dipendra Singh Airee and Hemant Dhami maintained pressure on batters by bowling tightly and ended up with a wicket each.

The batters made sure the  excellent performance  of the bowlers did not go to waste as they reached the winning target in just 18.4 overs for the loss of 4 wickets.

Leading the charge was  opener Kumal who was unbeaten on 45 runs. Another newcomer with  batting potential Ishan Pandey scored a handy  20 runs .

Nepal  completed a hattrick of wins, following their impressive win over Saudi Arabia by  5 wickets.

For the third straight match, the bowlers were at the top of their game, paving the way  for  victory.

Despite early hiccups, they managed to comeback and restrict  the opposition to  a modest total of 190 runs.

The experienced duo Lamichhane and Airee with two wickets each were the leading wicket takers.

Credit goes to Rajbhansi who claimed two crucial  wickets for dismissing both openers.

Similarly, newcomer Sher  Malla and all rounder Gulshan Jha made important breakthroughs by getting a wicket each.

In the run chase, although the top and middle  order batters performed cautiously, each one of them  came out with small but useful knocks that helped to steady the innings.

The trio of  Dev Khanal (39 runs), Ishan Pandey (40 runs) and Gulshan Jha(44 not out)  knocks  ensured the team success  in 30.3 overs.

Jha was under the spotlight for his aggressive undefeated 44 runs off 45 balls with the help of 3 fours and 3 sixes.

His brilliant all round performance deservedly won him the man of the award,

Having put in a dominating performance by recording three consecutive victories and advancing to the knock out stage, Nepal  looked forward to completing their fourth win in a row against Hong Kong in the last group match.

Though  they  went into the match as  favorites, however, their winning streak ended with a surprising 16 run defeat.

Hong Kong batting first posted 261 for 7 with the help of Babar Hayat brilliant  undefeated innings of 117 runs.

The bowlers performed reasonably well to restrict the opposition to 261 runs when it seemed they were headed to a total of 300 plus runs.

Lamichhane and Malla claimed  4 and 3  wickets respectively. They were the  only  two bowlers, accounting for wickets.

In reply ,Ishan Pandey batted belligerently and came close to scoring a  brilliant century but fell  short by  10 runs, ending his innings on 90 runs.

Contrary to the previous three games, the batting came under real test as they had a challenging total of 261 runs  to chase for victory for the first time in the tournament.

Nepal’s chances of winning the match evaporated as batters failed to hold the innings together and share crucial partnerships .Consequently, they were all out for 246 runs to lose  by 15 runs.

In the semifinal against Oman Nepal managed to wriggle back from  a losing position  to  attain victory in  a dramatic turnaround of the match.

Batting first, Nepal seemed headed for a paltry total after being reduced to 4 for 36. However, Airee 51 and  Ahamad 47 built a vital partnership for the fourth wicket, sharing 93 runs.

The innings wrapped up quickly as the Omani bowlers  came back  strongly to dismiss Airee and  Ahamad in successive overs. To add, they ripped through the tailenders restricting the total to 147 runs.

It was left to the bowlers to turn the tide in their favour. Left  to defend a reachable total, they faced quite  a challenge. They had to  consistently perform at their very best.

Rising to the occasion they bowled exceptionally well and rattled through the opponents batting to turn  a likely defeat into victory ultimately.

Credit goes  to excellent  bowling by Lamichhane (3 wickets), Airee (3 wickets), Paudel (2 wickets) and Rajbhansi (2 wickets ).

Team Nepal next features in the Asian Games  Men’s T20 international tournament, starting on September 23, 2026 in Japan.