Nepal’s winless run at home continued as the Rhinos lost an absolute thriller to the Netherlands by two runs in the Nepal Tri-Nation T20I Series at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur on Wednesday.

With Nepal—who were chasing 185—needing 15 runs off the last over, Dipendra Singh Airee smashed a four and a six off Roelof van der Merwe in the first two balls of the over to take Nepal closer to target.

But Timm van der Gugten and Merwe ran out Karan KC, who was attempting to take the second run, and Merwe mercilessly struck again to bowl out Airee, leaving the Rhinos needing four runs off the final two balls.

Pratish GC came to the strike but could not fish out the required runs as Nepal fell two runs short.

Airee finished his innings with 63 runs off 34 balls, cracking six boundaries and three sixes. In the process, Airee broke Kushal Bhurtel’s record for most fifty-plus scores for Nepal in T20Is. It was his ninth fifty-plus T20I score.

Skipper Rohit Paudel also gave a stellar performance by scoring a half-century. He slammed six fours and two sixes in his 36-ball 50.

Paudel added 65 runs with opener Aasif Sheikh, who made 34 runs off 23 balls, for the second wicket to steady the ship after Kushal Bhurtel departed for a duck for the second match in a row.

Paudel then added 32 runs with Kushal Malla for the third wicket before Sybrand Engelbrecht checked the run flow dismissing the duo in the space of four balls in the 12th over.

Nepal were reeling at 126-6 after Sundeep Jora (8) and Sompal Kami (0) walked back to the pavilion.

KC (11) and Airee revived Nepal’s innings putting on a 55-run for the seventh wicket but could not complete the chase.

Merwe and Engelbrecht took two wickets each for the Dutch, while Vivian Kingma, Van der Gugten and Aryan Dutta pocketed one wicket apiece.

Earlier, the Netherlands posted 184-4 in the allotted 20 overs after being invited to bat first.

The Dutch lost their opener Max O’Dowd for four runs, caught by Airee of KC in the third over.

But Michael Levitt, who was making his T20I debut, scored a fifty and shared a 62-run partnership with Engelbrecht for the second wicket to build the innings. Levit departed adding 54 runs off 36 balls in the 8.5 overs.

Engelbrecht, also a debutant, then added 46 runs with Scott Edwards for the third wicket and 61 runs with Teja Nidamanuru for the fourth wicket to take the Netherlands to a fighting total.

Engelbrecht was unbeaten on 49 runs off 38 deliveries. Edwards added a quick 33 off 16 balls, while Nidamanuru contributed 31 runs off 24 balls.

It was Nepal’s second consecutive loss series. They had lost the opening match to Namibia by 20 runs on Tuesday.

The outcome also means Nepal’s winless run at home has now stretched to four straight matches. They had won just one out of four matches in Kirtipur in the recently concluded Nepal Tri-Series of the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2.

Nepal’s 15-match winning streak at home had ended when they lost their inaugural match of the League 2 against Namibia on February 15.

Nepal play Namibia and the Netherlands in the second round of the Tri-Nation series on March 1 and March 2 respectively. The final will take place on March 5.