18th June 2025
As described in the An Ordinary Spectator series, my sport-watching over the years has occasionally taken in international contests of which I have been a disinterested – though not uninterested – third-party observer. For national teams, these began with the Women’s World Volleyball Championships in Minsk in 1978 – it’s a long story – including Belgium versus Tunisia and Yugoslavia versus Italy, through to Egypt versus Belarus in the football tournament of the 2012 Olympic Games and Sweden versus the Ukraine in Euro2020, both at Hampden Park.
On Monday, I extended this list by going to watch the Netherlands play Nepal. At cricket. A Men’s T20 match. In Glasgow.
The sides are currently taking part in a triangular tournament (with Scotland): each team will play the others twice at the Clydesdale CC ground at Titwood. This follows the same three sides also having played each other twice recently in Dundee in the 50-over One Day International (ODI) form of the game as part of the very lengthy qualification process for the next International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup. The finals are scheduled to be played in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in October and November 2027.
The Titwood competition, whilst a stand-alone tournament in its own right, has particular significance for Scotland and the Netherlands, as it is the final testing ground before next month’s 5-nation European qualifier (which the latter will host in the Hague) for the ICC 2026 T20 World Cup. They will be joined by Guernsey, Jersey and Italy with each side playing the others once and the top two proceeding to the finals in India and Sri Lanka.
The current ICC T20 Men’s rankings place the Netherlands in 14th position and Nepal in 18th. (Scotland are 13th). However, whilst this suggested that the Netherlands would have been favourites for Monday’s game, the ODI matches in Dundee had cast some doubt over this, as Nepal had beaten the Netherlands twice and Scotland once, losing only to Scotland (by two runs when chasing a target of 324).
For my pre-match research on the players, I drew on the ICC’s excellent website for the latest individual T20 rankings. The Netherlands’ higher team ranking was supported by two of their batsmen being in the top 60 (Michael Levitt at 42 and Max O’Dowd at 53) and three bowlers in the top 80. For Nepal, the allrounder Dipendra Singh Airee was ranked 60th in the batsmen’s list and 80th in the bowlers’, though their Titwood squad also included the leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, the country’s leading wicket-taker in both ODI and T20 cricket.
At Titwood, I took up a good position on one of a row of half a dozen plastic chairs behind the advertising hoardings next to the sightscreen at the far end of the ground from the pavilion. To my left was another man of about my age and to the right were a couple of other pensioners. We were joined by a young Australian.
I think that we were the only “neutral” spectators on our side of the ground. As far as I could see, the Dutch were absent. By contrast, the areas to our left and to the right on the other side of the sightscreen were occupied by perhaps two or three hundred Nepal supporters, who maintained a noisy and enthusiastic encouragement for their side throughout the afternoon. Flags, drums, symbols, horns, cheers, songs… it was a continuous cacophony that is probably quite rarely heard on the spacious playing fields of the G41 postcode.
The Netherlands batted first, Levitt and O’Dowd leading the way. The two sides’ innings were strikingly similar. Both reached 50 in the 6th over before being stalled by some excellent spin bowling in the middle overs – the bustling and accurate Lamichhane took three economical wickets for Nepal and the Dutch slow-left armer Daniel Doram responded likewise. Both sides fielded athletically and the two wicket-keepers – Scott Edwards (the Netherlands captain) and Anil Sah – were neat and efficient.
My Australian neighbour suggested early in the Netherlands innings that 150 would be about a par score. When, after a late innings acceleration, they finished on 152 for 7, I thought about asking him for this week’s lottery numbers. When Nepal batted, they reached 146 for 7 with two balls remaining. Their number 10 batsmen Nandan Yadav then struck a huge blow towards our sightscreen, which seemed destined to be the 6 to take his side to the brink of victory until one of the Dutch fielders – I think it was Noah Croes, who had earlier taken a stunning catch on the far boundary – ran around and then jumped up to parry the ball back into the field of play. The two runs scored meant that it was now 4 to tie or 6 to win off the last ball. The inevitable boundary took the Nepal total to 152 for 8. The scores were tied and – equally inevitably – there was a huge roar on our side of the ground.
Although I was aware that the Super Over – i.e. one over of 6 deliveries each (unless two wickets fall) – is the means used to determine a winner in a straight knock-out competition, I was slightly surprised that it was to be employed here, when the match was part of a group tournament. However, modern-day sport seems not to like the concept of a draw: a winner there must be. Still, it was new ground for me: I had not been present to see one played out before.
As the side having batted second for the 20 overs, Nepal took first strike in the Super Over and scored 19 runs. Levitt and O’Dowd then took 19 off the Nepal over, the latter registering a 6 and 4 off the last two deliveries. A second Super Over would be required.
This time, the Netherlands batted first and 17 runs were scored. When Nepal responded, the first ball was beautifully struck by the captain Rohit Paudel (who had top-scored with 48 in the 20-over match) high in the air towards us.
It is amazing how quickly the human brain can work when faced with an immediate challenge that requires an instant response. It took me only a split second to realise that the ball was not just travelling towards us: the direction and trajectory strongly suggested that it was specifically travelling towards me. It seemed as if Paudel had clearly aimed for the person sitting in my chair.
In the next split-second, I realised that I had a decision to make. Did I stand tall and heroically attempt to catch the ball? Or did I take evasive action by ducking down low to my left in front of an unoccupied plastic chair? It was at this point that the relevant brain cells registered that I was holding a ham and cheese sandwich purchased earlier in the day from the Marks and Spencer food store in Glasgow Central Station. Evasive action it was. The ball cleared the boundary rope and bounced into the advertising hoarding in front of us. It might have been at the cost of some personal dignity, but I am pleased to report that the sandwich was saved.
After Nepal had scored 11 runs from the first 5 deliveries of the second Super Over, I mentioned to my neighbour that they needed a 6 to tie. When, accompanied by an even louder roar of acclamation, Dipendra Singh Airee duly smote the last delivery over the long-on boundary rope, it meant that another Super Over was required.
That’s the trouble with Super Overs. You wait ages for one and then three come along at once.
The Dutch decided that the off-spinner Zach Lion-Cachet should bowl this time. He was up to the task, taking wickets with his first and fourth deliveries – with no runs being scored from the other two – which meant that, this time, the Nepal total was zero and the Netherlands simply needed one run to win.
I had been surprised that Nepal had not used Sandeep Lamichhane to bowl either of their two earlier Super Overs. He was chosen this time, however, thereby given the unenviable task of taking two wickets for no runs in order that another stalemate could be reached and yet another Super Over required. Given the events that I had witnessed over the previous half-hour or so, I did not rule this out, especially as Lamichhane had dismissed the Netherlands opener – Michael Levitt again – with his second delivery when he had come on to bowl in the 20-over context.
Lamichhane bowled the first delivery. Levitt smashed it for 6 over the distant long-on boundary. Game over.
It was the first time that a third Super Over had been required in Men’s professional ODI or T20 cricket.
The Netherlands play Nepal again tomorrow. A Men’s T20 cricket match at the Clydesdale CC ground in Glasgow.
An Ordinary Spectator 