A winter featuring Ashes humiliation and off-field scandal avoided a new low on Sunday when Sam Curran held his nerve to avert a scalping by minnows Nepal at the start of the Twenty20 World Cup.
Amid a weekend of nearly-shocks, England flirted with finishing off a team ranked 16th in the world in this format on multiple occasions, but lacked the killer instinct, until Curran defended 10 runs from the final over at the Wankhede Stadium.
England have a history when it comes to Twenty20 World Cups upsets, of course, losing twice to the Netherlands either side of winning their maiden title in 2010 and then to Ireland on their way to a second 12 years later.
They might also have been felled by Scotland but for the Barbados weather at the 2024 event.
In what was the most thrilling match of the competition so far, the Nepalese refused to buckle under the pressure of requiring 46 from the final 18 deliveries as Lokesh Bam launched an astonishing late blitz, taking Jofra Archer for two sixes in an over that went for 22. Bam by name, bam by nature.
The equation had been whittled down by 36 by the time that Curran – man of the series when England were crowned champions in Australia in 2022 – was asked to be a hero once more.
England narrowly avoided a hugely embarrassing defeat by Nepal at the World T20 in Mumbai
England posted 184-7 but Nepal fell short by just four runs in what was a breathtaking chase
Nepal’s Lokesh Bam smashed 39 off just 20 balls to almost take his side to an incredible victory
With Bam on strike, and set on 35 off 15 deliveries, Curran began a spell of unerring accuracy, starting with a dot and getting the set batsman off strike next ball.
Starving his opponents of width, the requirement was six off two balls when Bam turned down a single, and failure to get under the low full toss that followed meant England completed a four-run success.
England posted 184 for seven, the highest score of the competition, on the same pitch upon which India flirted with disaster against the United States the previous evening, in the knowledge that its pre-used nature and the effects of the sun would slow it down as the match wore on.
Harry Brook had said on the eve of the contest that the ongoing scrutiny of his late-night altercation with a Wellington bouncer pre-Ashes – he admitted lying to cover up for the presence of team-mates Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue, and is now subject along with them to a Cricket Regulator probe – had made the build-up to his first tournament as England captain ‘horrendous’.
Sam Curran expertly defended 10 runs off the final over as England breathed a sigh of relief
Earlier Jacob Bethell and Harry Brook both hit half-centuries as England racked up 184-7
And when his bankers with the ball Adil Rashid and Jofra Archer flunked, shelling 84 runs from a combined seven overs, it looked like things were going to get even worse.
During the late carnage, England coach Brendon McCullum relayed messages via walkie talkie to the dugout area in a sign of how they will deal with pressure moments during a competition that appears to have the smallest gulf between nations of any ICC event in history.
Having struggled under pressure in the 4-1 Test series defeat to Australia, the late calm was a welcome feature ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with West Indies on this same ground.
