By Grockle
October 17 2026

Aaron Johnson and his Canadian team mates will hope for a better performance and result against their Nepalese opponents today in their final appearance in the League 2 tournament. The North Americans may not get to one of the qualifying places for the next round but they come off a win against Oman and will want to end on a high

CWC Tri-Tournament - Canada v Nepal @ Al Amerat Saturday 17 October 2026

The last game for the Canadians of this section of the 2027 ODI WC qualifiers.  They are presently in 7th place and can probably move to 6th, at least until the game between Oman and Nepal on Monday where their present opponents may very well move above them again with a victory.  But today is today and the North Americans have won the toss and will bat first.  Nepal are looking to keep up their undefeated record in this competition hving beaten both of their opponents in the first round of matches.

Aaron Johnson and Yuvraj Samra face the Nepal new ball attack of Nandan Yadav and  Karan KC for the second time in the week and they will hope for a better and longer time in the middle this morning. It starts off slow though with only 4 leg byes coming from the first over.  The first boundary is from Johnson's bat in the second and he ends it with 7 to his name.

The batting pair have moved to 29 after 5 with the lead, as usual, being taken by the tall Canadian opener with a run a ball 18 to his name while Samra takes the support role in the early overs with 4.

Dipendra Singh Airee is on for his first spell with the ball in the 7th as the opening attack has had little effect on the Canadian opening pair who push the score past 50 with a four and the first six of the innings from Samra in the 8th and probably the last for a while from KC as the bat takes 16 from it to move his side to 53 for no wicket.

Not suprisingly there is a change after the 9th and Latit Rajbanshi takes the last in the 'Powerplay' giving away only 2 runs in his first and allowing the batting side to move to 62 from the first 10 with the pair levelling out the scoring a little, Samra having 25 from his 22 while Johnson has 29 from 38 - the best start of the Canadian batting line-up in this tournament so far.

The Nepal captain Sandeep Lamichhane brings himself on for the 13th with the score on 70 without loss.  However, it is Rajbanshi who gets the first scalp when Johnson  is caught in two minds about his 5th ball of the 14th.  He steps across and then back but the bowler changes the trajectory of the ball and the bat's attempt to cut the ball away is not successful and he is bowled for 32 from 52 with Canada on 72 for 1.  Gohil is the replacement bat and the score does not move on at the end of the 15th after the skipper bowls a maiden.

Rohit Paudel comes on for the 19th and he bowls a maiden to start his account for the day.  It is 94 for 1 with 20 overs down. Samra has 36 from 52 while his new bat buddy Samit Gohil has a run a ball 14.  The 100 arrives with the 4th ball of Paudel's next over.  Nepal bring Yadav back on for the 22nd after pretty ineffective first four overs at the start of the innings.  He has only gone for 14 but didn't tax the openers much at the start to be honest.

At the end of the 24th Paudel traps Gohil in front and he is out LBW at 105 for 2.  He departs for 17 from 21 bringing Harsh Thaker to the crease earlier than usual as we move to the halfway stage of the innings.  That arrives with Canada on 109 for 2 - having been slowed a little by the Nepal middle over bowling.

Samra is moving forward however and he starts the second half of the innings with a dismissive four off the returning KC to reach a personal 50 from 73 balls with 7 fours and a six. KC is going for some today, presently finding himself with over 8 runs an over (Samra did take him for abiout half of that from one over to be fair).  Samra is still taking him on and prodeuces another six at the end of his 6th to push his run deficit over 50 and the Canadian score to 132 for 2 at the end of the 28th.

In the 29th the Canadian bat looks to take on Paudel as well sending him into the Academy car park for six as well (his third of the innings).  Nepal turn back to Rajbanshi to see if he can put an end to this scoring acceleration as he has 1 for 10 from his first four overs.  He produces a maiden to keep the opposition at 140 for 2 after 30 overs but the scoring suggests a significant score over 200 is on the cards with 20 overs to go. 

At the end of the 31st over, Canada reach the 150 mark with a single off the bowling of Paudel from the bat of Samra.  Thaker is also starting to become a problem for Nepal as well as he moves to providing a little more than just rotating the strike to making runs in his own right.

At 35 overs the score has moved on to 165 without further loss which is setting the batting side up nicely for the final 10 over run with wickets in hand and about 200 on the board if the plan goes as expected.  Although they don't quite make the 200 with 10 to go, Canada have moved to 190 without further loss at the end of the 40th.  Samra is four runs away from an excellent century and Thaker has moved into the 30s.

But 3 balls into the 41st he looks to put Rajbanshi over the rope and does not get enough of it so he finds the fielder Airee instead an is caught in the deep for 34 from 57 at 193 for 3. this brings the Canadian captain Hamza Tariq to the middle tolook to help Samra push this score well past 250.

First of all Yuvraj Samra  reaches 3 figures off the first ball of the 43rd over with a single off Lamichhane. An innings scored a roughly a run a ball with double figure fours and 4 sixes in it. The new pair look to take the score to the next target pooint but Samra's innings saving spell ends at the backend of the 44th as he looks to take Airee on and only finds the grateful hands of KC to finish with 105 from 117 balls with 11 fours and the 4 sixes at 219 for 4. 

Akhil Kumar returning to the side for this game for Hundal joins his skipper in the middle.  However 9 balls later, his return with the bat ends as he is bowled by Lamichhane for 3 from 5 as the score limps towards 230 at 229 for 5. Sandeep is not finished because 2 overs later in the 48th he removes the 'boss' Tariq in caught by KC for 30 from 26 before new man Kaleem Sana is bowled off the first ball he faces at the same score.

Canada are left with Aaditya Varadharajan and the new bat Sheel Patel facing the hat-trick ball which they manage to cope with  but they don't manage to pass the 250 mark before Airee bowls Patel for 2 aty 245 for 8 in the 49th.  Sukhjinder Singh helps his side past the 250 mark before he goes in the 40th going up the wicket to Rajbanshi and being stumped by keeper Aasif Sheikh for 6.

The final pair see out the last 3 bals with Varadharjan finishing unbeaten on 12 from 12 while Shirzad faces the last ball and is 0 not out.  256 for 9 is probably less then the Canadians would have hoped for at 30 overs but it is a defendable score and they need to bowl with that in mind.  The Nepal bowlers were a little less tight thatn normalwith KC taking a lot of 'tap' from Samra and going for over 8 an overand wicketless.  Singh Airee also suffered from a looser than normal result with 2 for 49 from his 9.  His skipper took 3 for the same score from his 10 and Paudel had the other wicket in the 9 he bowled for 43 runs.

It's down to the Canadian bowlers to keep the Nepal bats in check.

The Reply

Kaleem Sana and Zahid Shirzad look to get in amongst the Nepal front end as they start the attack against the establishe dopening pair of Arjun Kamal and skipper Aasif Sheikh.  The first boundary comes in the first over as Kumal monopolises the strike and takes Sana for 9 (8 off the bat).  Sheikh does almost the same to Shirzad in the second taking him for another 7.  A good aggressive start from the Nepal operners.

By the 5th, Nepal  have moved to 33 without loss with both bats moving into the teens with the captain being slightly ahead and almost into the 20s.

In the 7th, Sheikh tries to pull Sana but only gets a bottom edge and the ball goes through to the keeper.  The Nepal keeper leaves the middle for 20 from 21 and they lose their first wicket at 37 for 1 which brings out Ishan Pandy to take his team mate's place.   The end of the 7th also sees a change in bowling as Shirzad moves aside for Sheel Patel to start his bowling work of the day.  Pandy drives his second ball for his first boundary, moving Nepal into the 40's.

Nepal pass 50 in the 10th over with 2 from Pandy off the bowling of Patel.  They finish the 'Powerplay' at 53 for 1.

Singh comes into the Canadian attack in the early teens and the bowling attack moves to dual spin to exert the 'press' on the Nepalese.  It is not until the 17th over that Canada break the partnership when Pandy top edges as drive and rather thansending the ball back over bowler Singh's head, he finds the ball nestles in the hands of Gohil  and he leaves the middle for 21 from 29 at 78 for 2.  That prompts a drinksbreak with Nepal needind another 179 runs from 33.2 overs at a rate just under 6 an over.

The new partnership couples Kumal on 35 from 50 with Rohit Paudel the incoming bat.