Nepal’s Men’s cricket team chose to field after winning the toss against Namibia in the third match of the current tour under ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 at the United Cricket Club Ground in Windhoek today.
Nepal team is yet to win in the ongoing Namibia tour with the first match producing no result and the second match losing to Scotland by 3 wickets.
Nepal’s Playing XI:
Arjun Saud †, Aasif Sheikh, Gyanendra Malla, Rohit Paudel (c), Aarif Sheikh, Kushal Bhurtel, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulsan Jha, Sompal Kami, Lalit Rajbanshi and Sagar Dhakal
In the last two overseas tours, Nepal’s batting has been a problem. Since the completion of the USA tour, the batters haven’t been able to score freely and accumulate at least 220-250 runs each inning.
Scotland tour
11 July – Nepal 180 all out vs Namibia 220
13 July – Nepal 146/5* vs Scotland 144 all out
16 July – Nepal 136 all out vs Namibia 199
17 July – Nepal 128 all out vs Scotland 130/2
*Nepal won in the second innings.
Namibia tour
02 Dec – Nepal 197 all out vs Namibia 4/0
04 Dec – Nepal 137 all out vs Scotland 143/7
The batting lineup has completely struggled in the seaming condition in both Scotland and Namibia. The main issues seem to be the percentage of dot balls and the lack of partnerships both at the top and middle orders.
The batting order is also another concern. Pushing Dipendra Singh Airee at six and Kushal Bhurtel at seven has not worked at all.
If Nepal needs to win from here, they would need to step up and adapt to the condition and the match situation.
Scotland has jumped to the top of the league table with 44 points while Namibia is currently sitting in the third position with 35 points. Meanwhile, Nepal is sitting in the sixth position with 8 wins from 22 ODI matches earning 18 points, just above Papua New Guinea.
