Ravi Bopara — the overseas batter carrying Chitwan’s order

Chitwan’s overseas anchor

Ravi Bopara has scored 171 runs in four matches for Chitwan Rhinos in NPL Season 3 — the second-highest total in the league — including a fifty against Kathmandu Gorkhas in Match 20. The England all-rounder has passed 30 in every innings he has played.

All-rounder. Overseas signing for Chitwan Rhinos. Bowling: medium-pace. Captain: Kushal Malla. Head coach: Sohail Tanvir. He was not in the Rhinos’ pre-season verified squad list — he is one of the overseas players who have appeared for Chitwan this season without being in that list — but the scorecards have made him the side’s most important batter within a month.

The consistency is the story. He opened with 32 not out off 26 balls against Biratnagar Kings in Match 2, on 27 October, as Chitwan won by eight runs. Then came 49 off 40 against Sudurpaschim Royals in Match 11, on 2 November, in a five-wicket defeat. Then 35 off 28 against Pokhara Avengers in Match 17, on 6 November, in a 30-run win. Then the fifty: 55 off 35 balls against Kathmandu Gorkhas in Match 20, on 9 November, with two fours and three sixes — the innings that carried Chitwan to 170 for 7 chasing 181, beaten by 10 runs.

Only Lokesh Bam, on 194, has scored more runs in the league. Inside Chitwan, the gap is wider still: the next Rhinos batter, Dawid Malan, has 114. Bopara has made nearly half as many runs again as anyone else in his own side, and he has done it while being the man the opposition plans for.

Season 3 in numbers

Four matches, 171 runs at an average of 57.00, and a strike rate of 132.6. Ravi Bopara is the only Chitwan batter to have passed 100 runs this season, and the only one to have passed 30 in every innings.

Season 3 figures cover every completed match through Match 21 (the abandoned Match 7 produced no play), compiled from the published match scorecards and updated 10 November 2026.

The bowling is barely there: a single over all season, 0 for 13 against Kathmandu Gorkhas in Match 20. That says plenty about how Chitwan use him — he is the batting anchor first, and the medium-pace is held in reserve. With the bat, the boundary count is even: 9 fours and 8 sixes, worth 84 of his 171 runs — nearly half his total scored in boundaries, and the rest run hard between the wickets in an innings built on placement rather than slogging.

Match by match

Every innings and every spell, in match order. An asterisk means not out. Full scores for every game are on the NPL Results page.

What the numbers mean

The headline is the runs, but the pattern is what makes them valuable. Four innings, four scores between 32 and 55, no failures at all. In a league where most batters have a duck or a single-figure score tucked into their record, Bopara has never once left Chitwan short. His average of 57.00 is the product of that steadiness plus one not out — and it is the best average of any batter in the league with more than 100 runs.

The worry for Chitwan is the same as the strength: the batting has leaned heavily on one man. Bopara’s 171 runs are the second-most in the league, and the question for the last two games is whether the rest of the order can share the load. If he fires twice more, the Rhinos are in the playoffs. If he has one quiet game, the side that has lived on his consistency will have to find runs from somewhere it has not found them yet.

Where the Rhinos stand

Chitwan Rhinos sit fourth in the NPL points table on 5 points from five matches — two wins, two defeats, one no result, net run rate +0.009. Two league matches remain: Janakpur Bolts on Friday 13 November at 4:30 PM NST (3:45 PM PKT, 10:45 AM UTC) and Karnali Yaks on Sunday 15 November at 12:30 PM NST (11:45 AM PKT, 6:45 AM UTC), both at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. The Janakpur game is a straight shootout — the winner stays in the playoff race and the loser is out — and two wins would take the Rhinos to 9 points and a top-two finish in reach.

The playoffs follow the league stage: Qualifier 1 on Tuesday 17 November, the Eliminator on Wednesday 18 November, Qualifier 2 on Thursday 19 November and the final on Saturday 21 November, all at 4:30 PM NST at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur.