Key events
5th over: Nepal 40-1, (Bhurtel 29, Paudel 1) Archer changes ends and sends down a tricksy over of slower balls and cutters that yield just three runs for Nepal.
4th over: Nepal 37-1, (Bhurtel 28, Paudel) Nepal’s captain Rohit Paudel is at first drop and blocks his first ball, the last of the over.
WICKET! Aasif Sheikh c Wood b Dawson 7 (Nepal 37-1)
After a long conflab, Brook turns to Liam Dawson to try and claw things back. Can Nepal’s openers do it against spin too? Sheikh doesn’t even have a look at Dawson, slog sweeping his first ball over fine leg and they scamper a couple. The pitch is cloaked in shadow now… and there’s the breakthrough! Sheikh sweeps to Wood at short fine leg and the Hampshire spinner gives it the big one in celebration, England were on the ropes a bit there and his fervent celebration tells a story. The dangerous Bhurtel is the wicket they really want/need.
3rd over: Nepal 31-0, (Sheikh 6, Bhurtel 25) Bhurtel is equally as good off the back foot it seems! He pulls Wood for four and then hangs back and pulls another short ball hight into the Mumbai sky and into the crowd for SIX. The crowd are roaring in delight and England have a problem early on. A single brings Sheikh onto strike and he whips off his pads and over midwicket with a flourish for four. 15 runs off the over, Nepal are flying at the Wankhede!
2nd over: Nepal 16-0, (Sheikh 2, Bhurtel 14) Jofra Archer with the second over and Bhurtel is not messing about. Three fours flayed in the over as the batter stays leg side of the ball and crisply drives three fours through the off side, the ball flying off his blade and making a whipcrack sound. 14 runs off the over!
1st over: Nepal 2-0, (Sheikh 1, Bhurtel 1) Tidy start from Wood, he’s full, on the money and operating at around 88MPH. Just two singles off the first.
Here come the players, Luke Wood is going to open the bowling with his left arm bustle. Khusal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh to open the batting for Nepal. The target is 185. Let’s play!
England make 184-7
20th over: England 184-7 (Jacks 39, Dawson 1) Will Jacks launches the last ball of the innings for SIX over the off side to make it 21 runs off the final over. England will be happy with that, they had to scrap in the middle overs but broke shackles in the last three. Brook and Bethell registering important fifties and Jacks slotting some decisive blows in the later stages. Back soon for Nepal’s chase.
WICKET! Archer run out (Aasif Sheikh/Karan KC (England 178-7)
Karan KC is going to bowl the last over… Jacks muscles two consecutive SIXES, one down the ground and a full toss bunted away over the off side. A single is pulled to midwicket and Archer sacrifices himself off the next ball to get Jacks back on strike. One ball to go…
19th over: England 163-5 (Jacks 18, Archer 1) Jofra Archer is promoted up the order to give it some humpty. He tickles a single to get Jacks back on strike, a huge moose from Jacks sees an under edge scuttle away for four past the keeper. Lucky lucky but England will take them. Twelve off the over, one more to go.
WICKET! Harry Brook c Malla b Yadav 53 (England 157-6)
Shot! Harry Brook goes to fifty with a swaggering launch over mid on for SIX.
Gone next ball! Brook tries to smear his next ball from Nandan Yadav but his hand comes off the blade and the ball skews into the deep on the offside where Malla holds on to a tricky catch.
18th over: England 151-5 (Brook 47, Jacks 13) Jacks plunders SIX down the ground to get England their first boundary in 20 balls. Four more off the over in total with some sprightly running, England bring up the 150 with two overs to go. Time to tee off.
17th over: England 139-5 (Brook 46, Jacks 2) Wonderful from Lamichhane, just one run off the seventeenth over! Harry Brook starting to look a bit twitchy as England lie dormant. Lamichhane finishes with 1-25 off his four as England settle for seeing him off. Three to go.
16th over: England 138-5 (Brook 46, Jacks 1) Curran never looked comfortable at the crease and chewed up eight balls for his two. Will Jacks join Brook with England looking to accelerate in these last five overs, just four runs and the wicket off the over though. Four to go and Lamichhane is coming on to bowl his last over.
WICKET! Sam Curran b Airee 2 (England 137-5)
Sam Curran drags his eighth delivery onto his stumps!
15th over: England 134-4 (Brook 45, Curran 1) Brook drives for four off the first ball and takes a single off the second. Curran is taking a little time to get his eye in, he only manages a single from the remainder. Six off the over.
14th over: England 128-4 (Brook 40, Curran 0) Six overs to go, Lamichhane is held back with one over left up his sleeve. Bhurtel is going to bowl at a ticking Harry Brook.
WICKET! Jacob Bethell c Lokesh Bam b Airee 55 (England 128-4)
Brook is looking ominous now, Airee drops short and is absolutely pongoed into the stands for SIX. Nepal desperately need a wicket… and there it is!
Bethell looks to do the same as his skipper but the ball from Airee just sticks in the pitch enough to see the shot skied high into the air. A fine knock from Bethell comes to and end and Sam Curran heads to the middle for the final third.
13th over: England 120-3 (Bethell 54, Brook 33) Lamichhane into his third over, he’s Nepal’s main threat. Brook is watchful but then springs to life off the last two balls off the over, driving over cover for four and then hanging deep in his crease and scything over long on for SIX.
12th over: England 106-3 (Bethell 53, Brook 20) Jacob Bethell brings up his fifty with back to back SIXES into the leg side off Bhurtel. Bethell has struck four fours and four sixes and is striking at around 186. England looking to put their foot down with Bethell and Brook well set. Buckle up.
11th over: England 92-3 (Bethell 42, Brook 19) Malla given his third over, Brooks and Bethell rotate strike before the latter deftly angles a full ball behind square for four. He’s so good to watch and goes into the forties with that stroke. England need him to go on here.
10th over: England 84-3 (Bethell 35, Brook 17) Kushal Bhurtel into the attack with his fast wrist spin. Brook guides his first ball for four behind point but its another wily over as Nepal buzz around between overs, they look a confident and well drilled outfit.
9th over: England 76-3 (Bethell 34, Brook 10) Lamichhane whistles through a very good over for the cost of just three runs. He also very nearly cleans up Brook with a top spinner that passes within a whisker of the off stump. England being made to work at the Wankhede.
8th over: England 73-3 (Bethell 33, Brook 8) Bethell has that thick trail of zinc across his nose and cheeks, his mullet is almost as white after a fresh bleaching. Nandan Yadav slams a short ball into the middle of the wicket and Bethell plays a tennis smash down the ground, there’s a mix up in the middle and with a better throw from Bhurtel sweeping round at long on and Bethell was gone. Eight overs played and the game firmly in the balance.
7th over: England 64-3 (Bethell 28, Brook 6) Harry Brook arrives with a point to prove in India. He goes immediately to the reverse-sweep and nearly guides it into the hands of first slip but luckily for England’s captain the ball flies away for four. Another wicket and the Nepal fans will be dancing in the stands. Oh wait, they already are.
WICKET! Tom Banton lbw b Lamichhane 2 (England 57-3)
Sandeep Lamichhane strikes with his first ball! Banton tries his trusty reverse sweep but gets in a tangle and is pinned in front. The umpire raises the figure and the review does not save Banton. Here comes Harry Brook.
6th over: England 57-2 (Bethell 27, Banton 2) Sher Malla returns for his second over, Bethell pounces on a short ball and slams it into the crowd for SIX. The next ball is full and driven languidly by Bethell for four. Power and style from the bleached boy wonder. Malla has been inconsistent since taking a wicket with his first ball. Banton clubs a full toss back at the bowler and it is dropped! Tough chance but you see them stick.
5th over: England 44-2 (Bethell 16, Banton 0) Tom Banton joins Bethell, the Somerset man impressed in the recent series against Sri Lanka and he is given the nod over Ben Duckett in this opening match. Yadav finishes a good first over, just five runs and the wicket off it.
WICKET! Jos Buttler c Aasif Sheikh b Yadav 26 (England 43-1)
Buttler tries to run a back of a length ball from Nandan Yadav off the face of his bat but a biot of extra bounce sees him somewhat tamely give catching practice to the wicketkeeper Aarif Sheikh. Nepal strike back and Buttler trudges off, he was looking in great nick.
4th over: England 39-1 (Buttler 22, Bethell 16) Buttler breaks those rubber wrists and deposits as too full ball from Airee down the ground for four immediately after rocking back and bunting a short ball through point for the same. England recovering well after the early loss of Salt.
3rd over: England 28-1 (Buttler 12, Bethell 15) Buttler bashes a four through the leg side, not pretty but needs must. Nine runs off the over with a minimum of fuss, Nepal shuffle their pack, Dipendra Singh Airee is coming on to bowl some off spin.
2nd over: England 19-1 (Buttler 4, Bethell 14) Jacob Bethell is the new batter. The 23 year old Malla is brought back to earth immediately as Bethell cashes in on some short stuff, a cut for four behind point is followed by a wallop over midwicket for SIX! Malla drops short again and is swivelled away for a third boundary in the over. A mixed bag from the debutant but he’ll remember that first ball for a long time.
WICKET! Phil Salt c Lamichhane b Malla 1 (England 5-1)
Sher Malla strikes with his first ball on international debut! It skids onto Salt who mis-times his pull shot, the ball loops up and is well taken at fine leg. England lose their first and the Nepalese strong crowd at the Wankhede lose their marbles! What a start.
1st over: England 5-0 (Salt 1, Buttler 4) Phil Salt opens England’s account off the first delivery with a firm drive to mid on where the ball is fumbled and the batters scamper a single. Jos Buttler clubs a four down the ground but is then beaten on the outside edge by an beautiful delivery that jags late. Two dots finish a tidy first over from Karan.
A noisy crowd, packed with support for Nepal. The experienced Karan Khatri Chhetri will start with the new ball, fast seam first up for England’s openers. Let’s play!
Here come Jos Buttler and the returning Phil Salt who has been suffering from back spasms but is good to go today. Buttler is apparently now called ‘Grandpa’ by his younger teammates. He’s 35.
The players emerge into bright sunshine, Nepal in navy with red piping and England in Red with navy kecks. My four year old daughter says she is cheering for the pink team (the umpires) before running off to draw a picture. Presumably of Rod Tucker.
Simon Burnton is our man in Mumbai, you’ve got just enough time before the first ball to dip into his scene setter.
Teams:
England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Tom Banton, 5 Harry Brook (c), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Luke Wood.
Nepal: 1 Aasif Sheikh (wk), 2 Kushal Bhurtel, 3 Rohit Paudel (c), 4 Dipendra Airee, 5 Aarif Sheikh, 6 Lokesh Bam, 7 Gulsan Jha, 8 Karan KC, 9 Sandeep Lamichhane, 10 Nandan Yadav, 11 Sher Malla
England have gone for Tom Banton over Ben Duckett at number four and Luke Wood gets the nod over Jamie Overton. Nepal hand a debut cap to impressive young spinner Sher Malla. Engkand are stacked with spinners too, we’ll see plenty of the stuff today.
England win the toss and choose to bat first
Harry Brook gets the rub of the coin and chooses to have first use on a used surface that India and the USA played on yesterday. There was some spin and bounce on offer in that match, England will look to get runs on the board on a wicket that could deteriorate.
It is steaming hot in Mumbai and there is extremely strong support for Nepal. Their captain, Rohit Paudel, says he is happy as he would have bowled first anyway.
Preamble
James Wallace
“All I do is hit a ball with a bat, and that’s what I want to carry on doing for the rest of my career – 15, 20 years or whatever – and that’s all it should be… Thankfully, I’m still pretty good at that.”
Harry Brook has had a torrid time off the field in the last few weeks as his words ahead of England’s first game in this T20 World Cup attested. On the pitch, his side have been performing well, with 10 wins in their last 11 completed T20Is.
Nepal, their opponents today in Group C are not to be taken lightly, they have won their last five T20Is and have been here before, this is their third T20 World Cup and they beat West Indies last year in a bilateral series. England have suffered humiliation at the hands of associate nations in big tournaments before and a spinning pitch at Mumbai’s famous Wankhede Stadium coupled with robust opposition will be a significant test of their mettle.
Play begins in a little over half an hour, at 9.30am GMT, and the coin is about to be flipped. Join us for what should be an intriguing match as England start their 2026 World Cup campaign.
