After Nepal narrow loss against cricketing giants England in their T20 World Cup opener on Sunday, legendary South African pacer Dale Steyn offered his services to the side via a post on X.
“Nepal, I offer my services to you if you ever need em! Up, up and UP!” Steyn tweeted.
The offer from the retired quick to coach or mentor the Nepal team came after the Asian side fell short by just four runs in the match, chasing England’s total of 184. At one stage, Nepal looked on course for a famous win. Requiring 46 from the final three overs, they counterattacked to leave just 10 needed from the last over.
“That’s a big thing for us. A legend who ruled cricket for 10 years is tweeting about us,” Nepal pacer Nandan Yadav told reporters in Mumbai after the match, about Steyn’s offer.
“But it’s up to the management team, so we cannot approach him directly. Maybe we could, I am not sure how to answer that one.”
Nepal will return to action against Italy on Thursday, with the England match another example in recent years of the side pushing a Full Member nation to the brink.
“We are improving in a good way,” the pacer said. “Games like this are good for us and for our cricket.”
Captain Rohit Paudel also reflected on the narrow defeat.
“Result-wise, it didn’t go our way, but effort-wise, I give 100% on fielding, bowling and batting. England were also struggling with death bowling, but Sam Curran bowled really well. It’s hard for bowlers in death overs to bowl, especially yorkers, those slower bouncers. But I think we’ll improve from there.”
The players themselves pointed to areas for improvement after the close loss.
“We need to focus more on our death bowling. We tend to give away more runs there. Even while batting, saving a few runs or taking more singles can change games like this,” Nandan admitted.