Dipendra Singh Airee is the only captain in NPL Season 3 carrying two lost finals into a third campaign. Sudurpaschim Royals topped the league stage 6–1 in both previous seasons and lost both finals. Airee was there for all of it: hero of the first Qualifier, 9 off 7 in the first final, first victim of a hat-trick in the second. Season 3 opened with a collapse (87 all out, Airee top-scoring on 27), and then, two days later, the first answer: 51 not out to chase 146 against Pokhara. Five games remain, under a new coach, with one trophy left to chase.
Two Games: 27 in a Collapse, 51 Not Out in a Chase
Match 1 against Lumbini Lions on 26 October was the worst possible start. Sudurpaschim were bowled out for 87 in 17.2 overs, losing their last 5 wickets for 31 runs, and Lumbini chased it in 9.5 overs. Airee top-scored with 27 off 23 balls, bowled by Kishor Mahato, with Anil Kharel next-best on 15 not out. With the ball, Airee took 1/31 in 3.5 overs, dismissing Niroshan Dickwella for 7. Lumbini captain Rohit Paudel had won the toss and chosen to field, and the decision never looked wrong.
Match 4 against Pokhara Avengers on 28 October was the response. Chasing 146, Sudurpaschim won by 6 wickets with 19 balls left. Airee finished 51 not out off 36 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes and was named Player of the Match, adding 1/21 in four overs with the ball. Ishan Pandey made 37 off 31 in a 74-run fourth-wicket stand that carried the chase to 130 before Pandey fell lbw to Mahedi Hasan in the 16th over; Airee finished it with Sherfane Rutherford (8 not out off 4), hitting the winning runs with a six off Pokhara captain Kushal Bhurtel. Airee had won the toss and chosen to field, and he was dropped by Dhananjaya Lakshan on 39 — the drop that let the chase happen. One secondary report calls the margin four wickets; the scorecard reads 148/4, which is six.
Across the two matches, Airee has 78 runs and 2 wickets. That puts him second on the Season 3 batting chart behind Lokesh Bam (113), and his fifty was only the second of the season after Dawid Malan’s. Two games is a small sample, but the shape of it matters: a captain top-scoring in a collapse, then finishing a chase unbeaten two days later.
Two Finals: The Record He Carries
Qualifier 1 of Season 1, on 18 December 2024 against Janakpur, was Airee’s finest NPL game. Chasing 140, Sudurpaschim won by 8 wickets, and Airee finished 20 not out off 16 balls while taking 3 wickets for 29 runs in four overs — the standout bowler of the match. Three days later, the final told the other half of the story. Sudurpaschim posted 184/9 and Janakpur chased it with 5 wickets and 4 balls left. Airee made 9 off 7 balls, dismissed Jimmy Neesham for 4 with his bowling, and ran out Aakash Tripathi for 2 — contributions in every discipline, and still a defeat. Player of the Match was Lahiru Milantha for 87 off 49.
Season 2’s final, on 13 December 2025, was worse. Sudurpaschim were bowled out for 85 in 19.1 overs (one report says 20 overs, but the scorecard reads 19.1), and Lumbini chased it in 9 overs. Airee made 13 off 20 balls with one six, and he was the first victim of Rohit Paudel’s hat-trick, caught off the fourth ball of the 11th over, with Dipak Bohara and Puneet Mehra following. With the ball he took one wicket, Sundeep Jora for 0; his bowling figures for that game are not in the available snippets, so this feature does not print them. Airee had won the toss and chosen to bat. At the toss that day, he had said his team was not going to repeat the same result in the final this time. They lost by 6 wickets.
Ishan Pandey, after Match 4 this season, gave the dressing room’s version of the same record. At the post-match press conference, he said the team used to suffer defeat at the end in the last two seasons, that the bad luck was now gone with the loss in the first game, and that the aim was to keep winning the remaining matches. No current-season direct quote from Airee himself has been published; the post-Match 4 report only paraphrases him and coach Misbah-ul-Haq expressing confidence in bouncing back.
The Hitter Before the Captain
Before the captaincy record, Airee built a world-record hitting record. On 13 April 2024, in the ACC Men’s Premier Cup against Qatar at Al Amerat, Oman, he hit six sixes in the 20th over off medium-pacer Kamran Khan, going from 28 off 15 to 64 not out off 21 balls with 3 fours and 7 sixes, and taking Nepal from 174/7 to 210/7. He became the third man, after Yuvraj Singh in 2007 off Stuart Broad at Durban and Kieron Pollard in 2021 off Akila Dananjaya at Coolidge, to hit six sixes in one over in a men’s T20 international.
Seven months earlier, he had broken Yuvraj’s fastest-fifty record: 9 balls against Mongolia at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September 2023, finishing 52 not out off 10 balls as Nepal posted 314/3 — the first 300-plus team total in a T20 international. One distinction matters: in the Mongolia game, his six consecutive sixes were spread across two overs, five off one bowler and the sixth off the first ball of the next over — so the Qatar over remains his only six-in-one-over.
Dipendra Singh Airee, born 24 January 2000 in Tilachaur, Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur, is a right-handed batter and right-arm off-break bowler who bats in the middle order. T20 international debut came on 29 July 2018 against Netherlands at Lord’s; ODI debut followed on 1 August 2018 against Netherlands at Amstelveen, in Nepal’s first-ever one-day international, in which he was one of the eleven. Senior debut had come a year earlier against Kenya, aged 17, after the 2016 Under-19 World Cup. In 2017, he captained Nepal Under-19 to a historic win over India Under-19 in the ACC Under-19 Asia Cup with 88 runs and 4 wickets. Secondary biographies credit him with a first ODI century in March 2022 (105 against Papua New Guinea) and a first T20 international century in April 2022 (110 not out against Malaysia). He also captains Nepal’s T20 international side. No overseas franchise stint appears in any profile checked — his franchise career in the sources is NPL-only, and this feature does not invent one.
What Remains: Five Games and Misbah
Sudurpaschim have five league games left: Match 8 against Biratnagar Kings on Saturday 31 October (evening), Match 11 against Chitwan Rhinos on Monday 2 November (evening), Match 16 against Karnali Yaks on Friday 6 November (12:30 PM NST), Match 21 against Janakpur Bolts on Tuesday 10 November (evening), and Match 24 against Kathmandu Gorkhas on Friday 13 November (12:30 PM NST). Match 8 sits under the established Kathmandu rain threat, with no postponement announced as of 30 October evening.
Misbah-ul-Haq is the new variable. Appointed head coach in October 2026 for Season 3, he said on arrival that he was very excited to join Sudurpaschim, that he had heard a lot about the passion for cricket in Nepal, and that he looked forward to working with the talented group of players. Jagat Tamatta is also on the coaching staff, as Nepali coach rather than head coach. Empire Sports owns the franchise, and Airee has captained it since its inception.
Combined across Seasons 1 and 2, Airee scored 389 runs in 17 matches at an average of 32.42 and a strike rate of 147.35, with a highest of 57, and took 18 wickets at an average of 22.11 and an economy of 8.73, best 4/23. Season 2 alone accounts for 162 runs in 8 matches at an average of 27 and a strike rate of 131.71. Season 3 adds 78 runs and 2 wickets to that record so far. Whether the third campaign ends differently from the first two is the only question left, and five games will answer it.
FAQs
What are Dipendra Singh Airee’s NPL 2026 figures so far?
After two matches: 78 runs (27 in Match 1, 51 not out in Match 4) and 2 wickets (1/31 in Match 1, 1/21 in Match 4). He is second on the Season 3 batting chart behind Lokesh Bam (113).
What happened in Sudurpaschim’s two NPL finals?
Season 1 final, 21 December 2024: Janakpur chased Sudurpaschim’s 184/9 with 5 wickets left; Airee made 9 off 7, dismissed Neesham for 4, and ran out Tripathi for 2. Season 2 final, 13 December 2025: Sudurpaschim were bowled out for 85 in 19.1 overs and Lumbini chased it in 9 overs; Airee made 13 off 20 as the first victim of Rohit Paudel’s hat-trick.
What are Airee’s world records?
Six sixes in one over in a men’s T20 international (13 April 2024 against Qatar, off Kamran Khan, going from 28 off 15 to 64 not out off 21), and the fastest T20 international fifty, 9 balls against Mongolia in September 2023. In the Mongolia game his six consecutive sixes were spread across two overs, so the Qatar over remains his only six-in-one-over.
Who coaches Sudurpaschim Royals?
Misbah-ul-Haq, appointed head coach in October 2026 for Season 3. Jagat Tamatta is also on the coaching staff. Airee has captained the franchise since its inception, and Empire Sports owns it.
