How Airee created an unbeatable record and Nepal reached new highs

Dipendra Airee, all of 23, was gifted deliveries on his legs by Mongolia’s pacers Mungun Altankhuyag first and Luvsanzundui Erdenebulgan later in an Asian Games match in Hangzhou on Wednesday, September 27. He made optimum use of these and tonked them over the rope to hit his first seven sixes. Two of these were full tosses while three were short. The remaining two were pitched somewhere in between the good length and full length.

The right-armer Altankhuyag had initially tried to bowl outside off but so slow was his pace and off mark was his length that Airee had enough time to pivot and hit it over square leg for six. So Altankhuyag decided to come round the wicket, possibly, to take the angle away and make it hard for Airee to hit six on the leg-side. But his line was poor and he ended up bowling on the legs.

He tried to adjust by bowling a fuller length but it was in the slot for Airee to get low and heave them to the leg-side boundary.

The Mongolian bowler Erdenebulgan, who too got hit for two sixes on the leg-side off two full tosses then bowled one outside off, which looked like a good ball. But Airee cut hard and the ball sailed over point for a brilliant six.

Airee, with this onslaught of sixes broke the record of fastest fifty in T20s by Yuvraj Singh (T20I vs England in 2007 World Cup), Chris Gayle and Hazratullah Zazai. While Yuvraj and others reached the half-century in 12 balls, Airee reached it in nine balls, a record that cannot be bettered and only equalled.

Airee’s fastest fifty in T20I or for that matter in all T20s, made Nepal the first team to score 300-plus in T20 Internationals. Nepal scored 314/3 bettering the 278 made by Afghanistan against Ireland and by Czech Republic against Turkey, both in 2019 (according to statistics by ESPNCricinfo.com).

Nepal’s total was built on Kushal Malla’s 137 off 50 balls (8x4s, 12x6s). The left-handed batsman scored the fastest hundred in T20 Internationals, breaking the record of century off 35 balls hit by South African David Miller, India’s current captain Rohit Sharma and Sudesh Wickramasekara of Czech Republic.

Mongolia were shot out for 41 in 13.1 overs, handing Nepal a 273-run win which is the biggest win in T20 Internationals, going past Czech Republic’s 257-run win over Turkey in 2019.  

Cricket, Asian Games, Nepal, Dipendra Airee, Kushal Malla, Mongolia, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh