Kathmandu- Nepal will be looking to erase their ODI woes against quality teams when they take Hong Kong in a ODI match in Colombo, Sir Lanka. After Nepal’s first bilateral series(T20 series) against the same was cancelled due to heavy rain continuously, ICC shifted the venue from Dambulla to Colombo on the request of both team officials. Tommorow’s match is already declared a List A match by the ICC.
Hong Kong got the ODI status after finishing in the top four in the ICC World Cup Qualifier 2014 in New Zeland. In the same tournament Nepal finished 9th due to which they were again relegated to Division 3 However, Hong Kong has not performed up to expectation after getting the international status as they were thrashed by 2-0 in their first and recent international series against PNG.
PNG defeated Hong Kong comprehensively by 4 wickets with 66 balls remaining in the first game and by 3 wickets in the second match.Their morale has been down by another loss in the only first class match between these two teams by 133 runs. Thus, Hong Kong will hope to gain their momentum back with a win over Nepal on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Nepal had a satisfactory ICC WCL Division 3 outing in Malaysia where they successfully defended the Div 3 crown. But when it comes to facing teams of higher standard like Afghanistan, Scotland, Netherlands etc in a 50 over match they have frequently disappointed people’s expectations. This time though, Nepal has to defeat Hong Kong in tomorrow’s match in order to show what Nepal are capable of ahead of Div 2 which is scheduled to start on January.
Head to Head
| Match | Total | Nepal | Hong Kong | Draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three dayers | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| One dayers | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Twenty20 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
Team News
Nepal lacks the experience of Sharad Vesawkar in the middle but Rajesh Pulami has shown that he can compensate his absence. Hong Kong squad looks particularly depleted withou Nizzakat Khan and Amshuman Rath. Three players Waqas Khan, Anas Khan and Niraj Patwari are completely new to the national squad. Muhammad Khan, Ehsan Khan make it from HK U19 squad.
Nepal Squad
Paras Khada (c), Subash Khakurel, Sagar Pun, Gyanendra Malla, Binod Bhandari, Rajesh Pulami Naresh Budhyer, Karan KC, , Bhuwan Karki, Sompal Kami, Basant Regmi, Shakti Gauchan, Anil Mandal, Pradeep Airee, Amrit Bhattarai.
Hong Kong Squad
Jamie Atkinson (c), Waqas Barkat, Irfan Ahmed, Nadeem Ahmed, , Aizaz Khan, Tanwir Afzal, Haseeb Amjad, Babar Hayat, Ehsan Nawaz, Ankur Vasishta, Muhammad Khan, Kinchit Shah, Waqas Khan, Anas Khan, Niraj Patwari
