Sandeep Lamichhane Blames Poor Fielding and Bowling for Biratnagar Kings Loss

Biratnagar Kings captain Sandeep Lamichhane has blamed poor fielding and bowling for his side's second straight defeat in Nepal Premier League Season 3, after Karnali Yaks chased down 187 with one ball to spare in Match 6 at the TU Ground in Kirtipur on Thursday.

Lamichhane's blunt verdict on the defeat

Speaking at the post-match press conference after the four-wicket loss, Sandeep Lamichhane did not hide behind the size of his side's total. The Biratnagar Kings had posted 186 for 7, built on Lokesh Bam's 87, but the captain said the game was lost in the field and with the ball. “Our fielding was very poor today,” he said, adding that such a performance is not acceptable for any team.

Lamichhane said the side dropped four or five important catches during the Karnali Yaks chase — as if dropping, in a single match, all the catches a team would normally drop across an entire tournament. The misses were the difference between defending a strong total and watching it chased down.

On the bowling, the leg-spinner was equally direct. “It was very difficult to bowl spin in the second innings,” he said, pointing to dew that made the ball hard to grip while the pitch eased for batting, and to fielders who did not give the bowlers the support they needed in that phase of the game.

Dropped catches and dew in the Karnali chase

Biratnagar, put in to bat after Karnali won the toss and elected to field, reached 186 for 7. Bam struck 87 off 52 balls with three fours and nine sixes, Angelo Mathews made 31 and Andre Russell added 27, while Karnali captain Sompal Kami took four wickets for 33 runs.

The chase slipped to 57 for 5 before Kami rebuilt it, first in a 66-run stand with Pawan Sarraf, who made 36, and then in an unbroken 64-run partnership with Gulshan Jha, unbeaten on 28. Kami finished on 62 not out off 32 balls, and Karnali won with one ball to spare. The final over underlined the captain's complaint: Bam dropped a catch offered by Jha, and Kami sealed the win with two runs off each of the next two deliveries.

Lamichhane bowled the final over himself despite the dew, believing he could still win the match, and said he had been ready and confident to defend even eight runs. Small mistakes, he added, can have a big impact on the result in cricket, and his team bore the consequences. The full account of Karnali's four-wicket win shows how late the game turned, after Bam's 87 had put Biratnagar in front at the innings break.

Praise for Kami and Bam amid the criticism

For all the bluntness about his own side, Lamichhane gave full credit to the opposition captain. Kami, batting at number five, played an excellent innings under pressure, performed with bat and ball, stayed at the crease until the end and led his team home alongside Sarraf and Jha. It was the kind of captain's performance, Lamichhane suggested, that punishes every lapse in the field.

He was just as generous about his own opener. Biratnagar had planned for a total of around 160 to 170, and it was Bam's batting that carried them to 187. The young wicketkeeper-batter, the captain said, is maturing continuously, has the confidence to face challenges on a big stage, and could become an important player for Nepali cricket and contribute significantly to the national team.

Asked about Bangladeshi player Jishan Alam, who is associated with Biratnagar, claiming he could not contact the team, Lamichhane answered lightly that he was not the team owner and could not answer for it — a brief moment of humour in an otherwise frank assessment of a second straight defeat.

What two defeats mean for Biratnagar's season

Two defeats in two games leave Biratnagar winless and chasing the season from the start. The points table shows Karnali alone at the top with four points, while Biratnagar sit on none with a net run rate of -0.261. Yet neither defeat has been heavy: an eight-run loss to Chitwan Rhinos, then a four-wicket defeat with one ball to spare. The margins say this is a competitive side that is leaking games in the field rather than being outplayed.

That makes the captain's public diagnosis significant. Biratnagar's bowling was built around Lamichhane's control — he took 17 wickets at 4.92 runs per over last season — but evening dew at Kirtipur blunts spin in second innings, and the attack has no margin for dropped catches when the ball is wet. The overseas batting, Russell, Mathews and Charith Asalanka, has produced useful contributions without yet producing the match-winning innings this squad was assembled for, leaving Bam to carry the batting in both games so far.

There is no time to dwell. No NPL matches are scheduled for Friday, October 30, and Biratnagar return on Saturday, October 31, against Sudurpaschim Royals in Match 8 — a side that has already opened its account. A third straight defeat would leave the Kings deep in the playoff race; a win, built on the sharper fielding their captain has now demanded, resets the campaign. The next performance will be judged against his own words.