Kushal Bhurtel’s breathtaking 126-run knock off just 54 balls helped him join an elite list of batters, which is spearheaded by France’s Gustav Mckeon and South Africa’s Rilee Rossouw
Published: June 6, 2026, 12:33 PM IST
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Nepal’s Kushal Bhurtel plays a shot during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 match between Scotland and Nepal at the Wankhede Stadium in the Mumbai district of Maharashtra on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. (Photo credit: IANS)
Nepal’s top-order batter Kushal Bhurtel joined an elite list of batters during his during his player of the match winning 126-run knock against Malaysia in the men’s Asian Games T20 qualifiers at the Singapore National Cricket Ground two days ago. The upcoming edition of the continental games will take place from September 19 to October 4 at Aichi-Nagoya in Japan.
6 countries have already qualified for the Games and the on-going qualifiers will see 4 more nations join the 10-team competition. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan received automatic qualification due to their full-member status at the International Cricket Council with Japan qualifying as the host nation.
4 teams from the 6-nation qualifiers will go through to the Asian Games 2026 with the remaining 2 getting eliminated. China, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Oman and Bahrain are currently battling it out to fill the vacant four spots.
The semi-final, which are set to take place tomorrow, will be followed by a play-off match and the final. Nepal will take on Oman and Hong Kong will go head-to-head with Singapore in the last 4 stages.
Kushal Bhurtel joins Tilak Varma, Phil Salt and Rilee Rossouw among others
Nepal remain the favorites to win the qualifiers and the major reason behind their success will be opening batter Kushal Bhurtel who starred in his side’s recent 167-run victory against Malaysia. In that match, the Nepalese unit had posted a mammoth 1st inning total of 275 before restricting the Malaysians at 108/9.
Kushal Bhurtel was adjudged player of the match for his sensational 54-ball 126 which also helped him reach a rare career milestone. He has joined an elite list of batters to score centuries in consecutive matches.
Bhurtel’s 126 against Malaysia was his 2nd hundred on the trot after reaching triple figures during Nepal’s Asian Games qualifying opener against China. Kushal Bhurtel joined the likes of Rilee Rossouw, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma and Phil Salt in the rare list of batters to score back-to-back centuries in the shortest format. The Nepali opening batter is just the 10th to do so.
