Singapore will play its first World Cup Qualifier in almost twenty years after thumping Nepal by 82 runs on the final day of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Region Final at the Indian Association ground on Sunday.

Singapore were the tournament’s only unbeaten team going into this match (after Nepal fell to Qatar by 4 wickets earlier) but few would have expected such a comprehensive victory against a vastly experienced Nepal side that has become increasingly accustomed to eking out decisive wins in the tights of pressure cauldrons. Instead, local young guns Rohan Rangarajan and Tim David all but batted Nepal out of the game. And with stalwarts Khadka, Malla, and Vesawkar back in the sheds at 62 for 3 after 8 overs one could be forgiven for calling it early in Singapore’s favour.

Rohan Rangarajan drives as Tim David backs up (Photo: Sanketa Anand)

Rangarajan is a precocious talent, a rare combination of quick feet, technical orthodoxy, maturity and power. He has scored against top opposition before – a solid 68 off 92 against Oman last year being a case in point. Yet this innings epitomized a newfound confidence to take on some of the Associate world’s best bowlers and execute with ease.

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And it was no fluke. In a pre-tournament interview on the Singapore Cricket Association (SCA)’s Facebook page Rangarajan speaks of the travails of combining national service with cricket. “I end work every day at 5:30 PM and as soon as I go home I have to get ready for cricket…it’s something you have to do if you love the sport so much,” he says.

Rangarajan, who turned 20 in June, is not alone in this steadfast commitment to the national team’s success. Throughout the week Singapore’s largely amateur squad of players, coaches, and administrators let slip their collective recipe for success: six or seven hours of training under lights every night; 15 warm-up matches – yes you read that right – against a PK Gladiators side comprised of Pakistani first-class and elite club players at the tournament ground; the revelation that SCA officials even scouted PK Gladiators players most similar to those they could come up against; and the lengths to which they went to scout, communicate with, and land Tim David’s services over a period of three to four years.

Tim David was player of the match in Sunday’s game and was batter of the tournament (Photo: Sanketa Anand)

The end result is that this was likely (we called it in Emerging Cricket’s preview) strongest Singapore side in recent history, a claim further backed up by the fact that their two most historically successful batsmen in Chetan Suryawanshi and Anish Paraam scored a combined 23 runs throughout.

A blueprint for other emerging cricket sides perhaps.

For Nepal’s cardiac kids, two losses in four games at this level is a worrying sign of things to come. On the field, their batting remains overly reliant on Paras Khadka, Sharad Vesawkar and (in this tournament) Gyanendra Malla, with Dipendra Airee and Rohit Kumar Paudel yet to convince in this format. Both Sandeep Lamichhane and Basant Regmi had uncharacteristically poor tournaments, bowling too full or too short in equal measure. Off the field, Nepal’s ongoing suspension by the ICC and the accompanying consequences for regular domestic cricket, high-performance training, and tournament preparation are of most concern. How this plays out across three years of ODI cricket is a difficult and urgent question for those involved with the sport there.

A dejected Nepal team during the final presentation. (Photo: Sanketa Anand)

Qatar played impressively throughout the tournament. It was notable to hear both captain Tamoor Sajjad and manager Gul Khan talk about the monarchy’s growing support for the sport in the Emirate. Qatar will be back in action next month for first round of the 2019 – 2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge Cup in Malaysia and will be hoping to build on an encouraging performance here.

There may be a shot at redemption for one of Qatar (as 2nd place finishers going into a repechage tournament) or Nepal (as the highest-ranked T20I side in Associate cricket) depending on how the ICC decides to replace Zimbabwe in the global qualifier later this year.

For the tournament’s remaining two teams, it is back to the drawing board. Malaysia should be bitterly disappointed with their overall performance after extensive preparations. Nonetheless given growing junior participation rates, competitive state-level tournaments showcasing a growing number of foreign professionals, and a young, talented, professionally contracted national side, the fundamentals remain strong.

Kuwait will take solace in captain Muhammad Kashif’s Player of the Tournament accolade, but will now have to wait until the next ICC qualifying cycle for a shot at the big stage. Until then it is back to the grind of the ACC’s Western Region tournaments.

Kuwait skipper Muhummad Kashif receives his player of the tournament trophy from ICC Asia’s Niteesha Kothari

We have crunched the stats from the competition and brought together an Emerging Cricket Team of the Tournament, in batting order: