Chitwan Rhinos at a Crossroads After First NPL Defeat

Three matches into NPL Season 3, Chitwan Rhinos are unbeaten no longer, have changed captains, and are still waiting for their marquee player to appear.

Chitwan's season so far

Chitwan Rhinos arrived in Season 3 with a familiar pattern to break. In 2024 they won four of seven league matches, finished third and reached the Eliminator, where they lost to Karnali Yaks. In the second season they slipped to seventh with only two wins. The start of Season 3 offered encouragement: an eight-run win over Biratnagar Kings in Match 2, then a shared point when the fixture against Lumbini Lions was abandoned because of rain.

Monday changed the mood. Sudurpaschim Royals, twice runners-up, chased 130 with 20 balls to spare, handing Chitwan a first defeat and moving up to third on the points table. Chitwan sit fifth on three points, but the defeat revived familiar questions: who leads the side, who scores when the top order fails, and whether the fielding can hold up.

A captaincy change in the third match

The most visible change on Monday was at the toss. Sikandar Raza, Zimbabwe's all-time leading T20I run scorer, captained Chitwan after missing the previous match on international duty with Zimbabwe. Ravi Bopara had led the side in the first two matches, so Chitwan have now had two captains in three games, with Kushal Malla, who led them in both previous seasons, again absent from the playing eleven.

That instability matters more than one toss decision: a captain sets fields, manages bowlers and steadies a chase. Raza's own batting on Monday was modest, 15 off 20 balls before Anil Kharel dismissed him, and the Rhinos will need far more from him if he is to lead for the rest of the campaign.

Batting built around Bopara

One thread runs through Chitwan's season: dependence on Bopara. Against Sudurpaschim he again carried the innings, scoring 49 off 40 balls with three fours and two sixes, and passed 10,000 runs in T20 cricket during that innings. He fell one run short of a half-century attempting a big shot, and the rest offered little: Dawid Malan 16 off 17, Arjun Saud 15 off 16, and Bibek Kumar Yadav 17 off 15, run out off the final delivery.

Bopara made more than a third of Chitwan's 129, and no other batter passed 20. When he went, the innings had no second act. Monday’s defeat showed how thin the margin becomes when one man must do the scoring and the finishing. The milestone, covered in his 10,000-run landmark, is a career achievement; it should not have to be a match plan.

Bowling fightback led by Ranjeet Kumar

For a spell on Monday evening, Chitwan looked like winning a match they had no right to win. Defending 129, they had Sudurpaschim four down inside seven overs after a burst from Ranjeet Kumar, who removed Brandon McMullen (43 off 21) and captain Dipendra Singh Airee off consecutive deliveries, Airee for a golden duck. Kumar finished with three for 28, with Rijan Dhakal and Mousam Dhakal taking one each.

It was Kumar who fronted the post-match press conference, and his assessment was blunt about the result while keeping faith in the dressing room. “It was not a match we wanted to lose,” Kumar said. “The match just didn’t go our way.” He added: “Personally, I will help my team win the next match. In whole, the team is aiming to reach the finals and lift the trophy this time.” Those are not the words of a side settling for a mid-table finish, but words alone do not defend 129.

Fielding and the missing marquee player

Two issues sit behind the scorecard. The first is fielding: the Kathmandu Post's assessment noted many dropped catches by the Rhinos, and at this level a dropped catch is the extra runs that turn a defendable total into a comfortable chase. Sudurpaschim rebuilt through Ishan Pandey (25 off 29), Aarif Sheikh (20 not out off 26) and Sherfane Rutherford (21 not out off 15) to close the game in 16.4 overs.

The second is the absence of Malla. Head coach Sohail Tanvir, appointed to lead the side's push for a first title, has built his plans around a core that includes Malla, Raza and Bopara, yet the marquee Nepali batter has not featured in the playing eleven. No reason for his absence has been given in the match reporting, and that silence leaves a gap in the middle order that Bopara is currently filling alone. Until Malla returns, or the rest of the batting finds another gear, Chitwan will keep asking one overseas veteran to carry an entire innings.

What Chitwan must fix before Pokhara

Chitwan do not need to reinvent themselves; they need to fix three visible things. The batting must produce a second scorer alongside Bopara, whether Malan batting through the middle overs, Raza converting starts, or Malla returning to anchor the top order. The fielding must stop giving away extra runs. And the captaincy must settle, so the side stops starting each match with a new voice at the toss. Pokhara, meanwhile, arrive winless after two defeats, so November 6 is a match neither side can afford to lose.

None of that is beyond a side that won its opener and has four league matches still to play, starting against Pokhara Avengers on November 6 at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. Before the season, chairman Ayush Neupane said: “We have worked much harder than last time, and our target is to win the title.” That target still stands, but the next match is where it will be tested: another low total, and the Rhinos will be chasing the playoff race rather than leading it.