Impressive half-centuries from the Mosca brothers delivered Italy their inaugural victory in the T20 World Cup 2026, as the Azzurri demolished Nepal by 10 wickets in Mumbai. Anthony Mosca struck an unbeaten 62 from merely 32 deliveries, whilst his younger sibling Justin remained not out on 60 from 44 balls. This marked Italy’s maiden triumph in any cricket World Cup competition. Ben Manenti, JJ Smuts and Crishan Kalugamage excelled as Italy dismissed Nepal for 123 runs.
Italy had earlier won the toss and elected to bowl first against Nepal in this crucial T20 World Cup 2026 match at Mumbai’s renowned Wankhede Stadium. Both teams approached this Group C clash urgently needing points following defeats in their opening fixtures, though Nepal possessed considerable confidence after their narrow four-run loss to England, where they came close to achieving one of the tournament’s most remarkable upsets.
TOSS
Italy secured the toss and chose to field first.
PLAYING XI
Italy (Playing XI):
Anthony Mosca, Justin Mosca, JJ Smuts, Harry Manenti(c), Ben Manenti, Marcus Campopiano, Grant Stewart, Gian Meade(w), Jaspreet Singh, Crishan Kalugamage, Ali Hasan
Nepal (Playing XI):
Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh(w), Rohit Paudel(c), Dipendra Singh Airee, Aarif Sheikh, Lokesh Bam, Gulsan Jha, Karan KC, Nandan Yadav, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi
NEPAL
Opting to bowl, Italy commenced with Manenti’s off-spin bowling. Kushal Bhurtel struck the opening boundary of the innings against Ali Hasan but departed the following delivery, mistiming his shot directly to point. Hasan surrendered two boundaries in his subsequent over, bowling wide down the leg-side whilst Rohit Paudel launched two sixes during the PowerPlay’s conclusion.
Kalugamage, brought into the attack during the seventh over, claimed a wicket in his opening over as Paudel was caught at deep long-on. Manenti dismissed the other established batsman Aasif Sheikh through stumping, leaving Nepal in considerable difficulty. The 7th through 10th overs yielded merely 21 runs before Aarif Sheikh struck consecutive boundaries against Stewart. Italy’s spin bowlers maintained pressure on the Nepalese batsmen. Wickets again fell rapidly as Kalugamage and Manenti removed Dipendra Singh Airee and Lokesh Bam respectively. Smuts dismissed the well-set Aarif Sheikh for 27, leaving Nepal facing a precarious situation. Kalugamage claimed two wickets in his final over, reducing Nepal to 102 for 8.
Karan KC actually hit some big shots and took 14 runs from Hasan in the 18th over, but Nepal definitely lost their last two wickets in the final over with three balls still remaining. Basically, Italy bowled the same 12 overs using spin bowling in the first innings.
ITALY-
Italy actually showed their plan right away when Anthony definitely hit Karan for a six in the first over and they kept going strong from there. As per the match progress, spin bowling was brought in during the second over, but regarding the Mosca brothers’ response, they stayed calm and hit boundaries easily. We are seeing Justin hitting the ball very well with good shots, scoring six sixes and boundaries only in the third and fourth over, helping Italy reach 50 runs after four overs.
Basically Nepal couldn’t control the same boundary hitting and even their best spinner had no answers to the attack. We are seeing Italy making a very fast start with 68 runs without losing any wicket in the first six overs, which is only the third best score by a smaller cricket team in T20 World Cup history. We are seeing both brothers completing their fifty runs one after the other, and Anthony only needed a single shot down the ground to finish the match.
Brief Scores:
Moreover, nepal scored 123 runs in 19.3 overs with Aarif Sheikh making 27 and Rohit Paudel contributing 23, while Italy’s bowlers Crishan Kalugamage took 3 wickets for 18 runs and Ben Manenti claimed 2 for 9. Italy further chased the target itself without losing any wicket, reaching 124 in just 12.4 overs through Anthony Mosca’s 62 and Justin Mosca’s 60, winning by
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