The ESPN Cricinfo, cricket most prestigious website, named Nepal’s captain Paras Khadka amongst the Best XI of the World T20 Cup Qualifiers that concluded on Saturday in the UAE.
In the list prepared by Peter Della Penna, Kadka is the one of the only two players to retain place in the list from the last year’s tournament best XI while Paul Stirling of Ireland to be the next.
Khadka and spinner Shakti Gauchan were in Della Penna’s list after the 2012 edition of the World T20 Qualifiers.
In the recent list prepared by Della Penna, three Netherlands players Wesley Barresi, Mudassar Bukhari and Ahsan Malik are included along with Tony Ura (PNG), Paul Stirling (Ireland), Max Sorensen (Ireland), Matt Machan (Scotland), Khurram Khan (UAE), Samiullah Shenwari (Afghanistan) and Munir Dar (Hong Kong).
Khadka scored 232 runs and claimed 11 wickets in the tournament. “His raw stats don’t tell the full story as his numbers are not as glamorous compared to others in the list, not to mention those outside of the XI,” wrote Della Penna in the website. With more than half of Nepal’s games being broadcast either online or on television at this tournament, many cricket fans outside of Kathmandu will have gotten their first glimpse of why this man means so much to his country,” he added.
“After a first-day win over Denmark, Khadka stayed to the end with 54 not out as Nepalchased Kenya’s 182. The performance validated Nepal’s ambitions of finishing in the top six, though they might not have progressed to Bangladesh without his Man-of-the-Match performance against Hong Kong, when he anchored the chase of 143 with a cool 46 in 39 balls,” stated the cricket writer.