Kushal Bhurtel turned Nepal’s Asian Games qualifying campaign into a statement of intent two days ago, blasting 126 off 54 balls against Malaysia and pushing his side deeper into the race for a place at next year’s Games. The opener was named player of the match after an innings that backed up the century he had already scored in Nepal’s opening game against China.
That burst of form is why nep vs oma is now the fixture drawing the most attention. Bhurtel became only the 10th batter to score centuries in consecutive T20 internationals, joining Rilee Rossouw, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma and Phil Salt on a short list that underlines how rare the feat is. For Nepal, it also came in a ruthless 167-run victory over Malaysia, after they posted 275 and then held Malaysia to 108/9 at the Singapore National Cricket Ground.
The timing matters because the qualifiers are moving straight into the last stretch. Nepal remain the favorites to take one of the four remaining places in the 10-team men’s cricket competition at the Asian Games 2026, but they still have to clear Oman in tomorrow’s semi-final before anything is secured. Hong Kong meet Singapore in the other semi-final, with the winners advancing toward the play-off and final that will decide who joins the field in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
That is the edge in Nepal’s position: Bhurtel has given them the form and the margin to look like the team to beat, but the bracket has not been kind enough to hand over a place in the tournament. China, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Oman and Bahrain are still fighting for four spots, while Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are already through on full-member status and Japan is in as host. Nepal have done the hard part so far. Oman is the next test, and it is the one that will decide whether Bhurtel’s run ends as a headline or becomes the innings that carried Nepal into the Asian Games lineup.
