On this day (November 18) in the year 2006 Nepal had set a record in the history of cricket which is impossible to break. The Himalayan nation became the fastest team to chase down a target in an ICC accredited Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Cup tournament match against Myanmar.
Nepal took two legitimate balls to reach the score of 10 set by the South East Asian country Myanmar in a Group C encounter.
It was the time when Nepal was known to be mightier than Afghanistan. While Nepal were rising through the ICC’s divisions, Afghanistan were stuck at division five.
Myanmar batsman Abdul Rahman said in an interview to a local paper, “We can only get better from here.” Within a matter of 48 hours, Rahman found out that things can get a lot worse.
Winning the toss Nepal captain, Binod Das asked Myanmar to bat. The new ball was given to their best fast bowler Mahboob Alam who ripped apart Myanmar batting line up.
Burmese opener Omer was the fast man to face the fury of Alam. Alam then dismissed Sharjeel and Rahman. By the time captain Das ended his second over Myanmar were found themselves at the loggerhead as they lost 4 wickets for 4 runs.
However, Mo Tyun and captain Tin Aye managed to play 21 balls, the longest time a Myanmar partnership stayed at the crease. Nepal pacer Mahboob in the second over and in third over of the Myanmar innings Nepal got rid of the duo within a span of three balls.
Das then dismissed Zakariya, who displayed his guts and played 20balls, though he scored 1 run in 21 minutes. Das went on to add two more to his match figure.
Unfolding the story of cricket in Myanmar
It was difficult to understand which side of the board was showing run and which side was wickets. Nepal were 10 for 9. Mahboob completed his 7th wicket haul dismissing Aye Min Than. Myanmar’s final score was 10 runs in 12.1 overs, which is the lowest ever total in international cricket.
Then Nepal came to chase. Aye Min Than opened the bowling conceded three runs off the first delivery as opener Mahesh Chhetri steered the ball at fine leg calmly and took three. Dhiraj Chand then cut the second ball and run for another three. With 5 runs needed fours balls still left in the over Than tried to delay the result of the match. He bowled two consecutive wides. Wicketkeeper Kumar Omer failed to collect the third wide. So, cyclone ended Nepal completed the rout over Myanmar with a 10 wicket victory. The match ended within two legal deliveries.
Before the Myanmar fixture, Nepal have earned a comfortable victory over Kuwait. Nepal scored 317 and bowled out the Middle East’s oil-rich country for 36. At the same time, Myanmar were the bottom ranked team in the competition. They even ranked below Brunei, Bhutan and Maldives as they did not have any cricket experience.
Myanmar had already suffered a blow as tournament favourite Hong Kong posted 441 and handed them by 422 runs defeat.
Myanmar had taken a baby steps in the game of cricket in the year 2004 when a group of Australian experts introduced cricket to the country.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) also held a couple of grass roots programmes there and by 2006 the country fielded the first team in an international tournament comprised of associate and affiliated members of ICC.