West Indies qualify for Super 8s, Nepal knocked out

Dipendra Singh Airee's half-century went in vain as West Indies cruised to a comfortable nine-wicket win over Nepal to secure their place in the Super 8s. Jason Holder led the way with a four-wicket haul, and the batters put up a clinical display to overhaul Nepal's score of 133 for 8 at the Wankhede Stadium, eliminating Nepal from the tournament.

Put in to bat, Nepal never found momentum. Opener Kushal Bhurtel was dismissed in the opening over, and skipper Rohit Paudel fell for 5 soon after. By the seventh over, Nepal were reduced to 23 for 4 before Airee began the recovery with the lower middle order.

In partnerships with Lokesh Bam and Gulshan Jha, Airee steadied the innings, though scoring was slow. The acceleration came only late, with Airee and Sompal Kami attacking the pacers. In the 18th over, Kami hit three successive boundaries off Holder, and Airee followed with two sixes off Shamar Joseph in the next over, the first bringing up his half-century. However, Holder returned to bowl a tight final over, taking two wickets with effective yorkers.

In response, West Indies had little difficulty in the chase. Brandon King started with a boundary off the first ball. The openers found boundaries regularly, with King particularly aggressive in the fifth over, hitting Kami for three fours.

Though King fell in the final over of the powerplay, ending a 44-run opening stand, Nepal couldn't seize momentum. Shimron Hetmyer handled Sandeep Lamichhane well, hitting a six over long on. Shai Hope joined in, striking two sixes off Lamichhane in the 15th over to bring up his half-century.

Brief Scores:
Nepal 133/8 in 20 overs (Dipendra Singh Airee 58, Sompal Kami 26*; Jason Holder 4-27, Matthew Forde 1-10) lost to West Indies 134/1 in 15.2 overs (Shai Hope 61*, Shimron Hetmyer 46*) by 9 wickets.