The West Indies became the first team to qualify for the Super Eights phase of the T20 World Cup when they cruised to victory against Nepal by nine wickets.

After restricting Nepal to 133-8 in their 20 overs on Sunday, captain Shai Hope’s 61* helped his team romp to 134-1 in 15.2 overs in the Group C clash at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.

Hope reached his fifty off 38 balls and scored three sixes and five fours in all.

He put on an unbroken 91 with Shimron Hetmyer to reach the 134 target with 28 balls to spare.

Hetmyer was 46* at the end from 32 balls, with two sixes and four fours.

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After Hope won the toss and chose to field, Matthew Forde bowled a magnificent spell of 1-10 from his four overs and removed Nepal captain Rohit Paudel for five.

Nepal were in all sorts of trouble at 22-3 at the end of the six-over powerplay, then 23-4 and 46-5 in the 11th over as Jason Holder also got among the wickets.

It was only Dipendra Singh Airee’s 58 that pushed Nepal past the 100 mark as he shared in a partnership of 54 for the seventh wicket with Sompal Kami, who was there at end on 26*.

Holder took 4-27 from his four overs.

The result eliminates Nepal, who cannot progress further in this year’s T20 World Cup.

– AFP

Photo: Getty Images