Viratnagar Kings captain Sandip Lamichhane has blamed poor fielding, rushed batting and a lack of patience for his side’s consecutive defeats in the Nepal Premier League (NPL), saying the team failed to build the score it wanted and made costly mistakes in key moments. After an eight-run loss to Chitwan Rhinos, he said Viratnagar’s batters rushed their innings and chose the wrong shots in the final overs. Following a six-wicket defeat to Karnali Yaks on Thursday, he also pointed to a dropped catch that, in his view, appeared to have cost the team its chance in the tournament.
Batting errors cost Viratnagar against Chitwan
The defeat to Chitwan Rhinos came by eight runs, leaving Viratnagar short of the target. Lamichhane’s assessment focused on the way the innings was finished: he said the batters rushed in the final overs and played shots he considered wrong for the situation. His comments placed the responsibility on the team’s decision-making as well as its ability to score.
In a close result, the final overs can become a decisive phase, and Lamichhane’s explanation was that Viratnagar did not manage that phase with enough patience. Rather than describing the loss as the result of a single mistake, he identified a combination of hurried batting and poor shot selection. The team’s failure to close the gap against Chitwan was therefore a concern about how it approached the end of the innings, according to the captain’s account.
The loss was followed by another defeat, leaving Viratnagar with back-to-back setbacks. Lamichhane’s criticism after the Chitwan match pointed to a batting issue, but the next game also brought a fielding error into focus. His comments after the two results highlighted different parts of the team’s performance rather than attributing the defeats to one cause alone.
Dropped catch compounds loss to Karnali Yaks
Viratnagar then lost to Karnali Yaks by six wickets on Thursday. It was the team’s second consecutive defeat. Lamichhane said Viratnagar could not build the score it wanted, identifying the batting output as one of the problems in the match. He also singled out a dropped catch, saying it seemed to cost the side the whole tournament.
The captain’s remark underlined how important he considered the missed opportunity. The available reports do not identify the player who dropped the catch or provide further details about the delivery or the stage of the game. Lamichhane’s assessment was that it had a major impact, while his wider explanation also included the team’s inability to post the score it had hoped to make.
The six-wicket margin against Karnali and the eight-run margin against Chitwan came in successive matches, but Lamichhane described problems in both departments. Against Chitwan, he highlighted impatience and wrong shots in the closing overs. After the Karnali loss, he focused on the total Viratnagar managed to build and the dropped catch. Together, the comments point to the captain’s view that both batting and fielding contributed to the team’s defeats.
Captain calls for patience after consecutive defeats
Lamichhane’s post-match criticism was direct: Viratnagar needed to bat with greater patience, avoid poor shot choices late in an innings and take its fielding chances. His explanation connected the team’s missed opportunities with the outcomes of the two matches, while stopping short of suggesting that one issue alone accounted for both results.
The successive losses put the focus on how Viratnagar responded after its defeat to Chitwan. The team again fell short against Karnali, and Lamichhane said it had not produced the score it wanted. The missed catch added another concern for a side that was trying to recover from its first setback.
Reports on the Chitwan match were published by Ratopati, while Rajdhani Daily and Global Aawaj reported on the team’s defeat and Lamichhane’s comments. His assessment across the two matches was clear: Viratnagar’s batting lacked the patience needed in crucial overs, its fielding let it down, and the team could not produce the performance required to avoid consecutive losses.
