Stuart Law's reaction after coming down to Kathmandu as Nepal's head coach was, 'I don't like to lose, I hate defeat.' This statement will be a big challenge when Nepal faces the home team and the Netherlands in the World Cup Cricket League-2 series in Dundee, Scotland.

Based on past results and performance, this is the toughest series that Nepal is going to play. Nepal is at the bottom of League-2 while America is at the top. The Netherlands is in second place, Oman is third and Scotland is fourth. The teams in the top three have played 20 matches. Scotland have played 4 games less than Netherlands. Nepal is 20 points behind the Netherlands and 14 points behind Scotland. 

Scotland is the defending champion of League-2 while Netherlands is a team from the ODI Super League. Scotland and Netherlands recently played a League-2 series in the Netherlands. Netherlands won 3 matches and Scotland won 2 matches in the series which included UAE. When these two teams met each other in the last two matches, Scotland scored 380 runs against the Netherlands. 

Nepal's challenge is not only to play against a strong and top team, but also in terms of condition and wickets, playing in Scotland is another big challenge for Nepal. Scotland will have a grassy and bouncy wicket compared to Nepal's flat wicket, which will not be easy for Nepal. When the Nepalese batsmen are not yet confident in the short ball, Scotland's wicket can become an obstacle to Nepal's goal. Finding Nepal's weakness, the opponents have been hitting the short ball even on a flat pitch. It will be very difficult for Nepal to face this in Dundee. The Nepali team has come to London after training in high summer in Kathmandu. Nepalese players wore sweaters and jumpers in the cold while playing one practice match in Cardiff and three practice matches in London. Hill City Dundee has a cooler breeze. It makes it more difficult for the spinners in particular to grip the ball, and the batter will find it difficult as well. 

Nepal has already absorbed this experience while playing a practice match against Scotland 'A' in Dundee on Thursday. In the first practice match against Scotland 'A', Nepal was defeated by 102 runs. Batting first, the home team scored 220 runs after losing 9 wickets in 40 overs. In response, the Nepali team was bowled out for 118 runs in 29.4 overs. Apart from Arif Sheikh scoring 44 runs, others from Nepal could not contribute much.

Before the League-2 match starts on Monday, Nepal will play another practice match against Scotland 'A' on Saturday. Coach Law has officially started his training trip to Nepal after visiting the UK. Former South African wicketkeeper Nick Pothas has been included in the Nepali team to support him. Pothas, who has been in the teams of Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh, has been appointed as a consultant coach in the Nepali team. 

Having played in the 1996 World Cup for Australia, Law has proven himself in the associate field. Under his training, America reached the Super 'Eight' in the Twenty-20 World Cup last year on home soil, surpassing Pakistan and Ireland. During that time, America defeated Pakistan in the Super Over in the group stage match. In 2009, he was the assistant coach of the Sri Lankan national team. Law then became the head coach of Bangladesh in 2011–12. From 2018 he was the head coach of West Indies. He also coached Afghanistan in 2022 for one series. Apart from that, he also coached the English county team Middlesex. Although he has long experience in

training, he did not come to Nepal with any magic wand. After playing 12 matches, Nepal is at the bottom with only 6 points. This has put a big question mark in the campaign to protect Nepal's one-day international status. Nepal started its journey to League-2 of the 2024-27 circle from the series with Namibia and the Netherlands at home. But Nepal managed to get the only victory in the 4 matches of that series. Dharmarawan started his journey to Nepal from here. 

Nepal won 11 out of the last 12 matches in League-2 of the 2019-23 circle and not only saved the one-day international recognition, but directly qualified for the World Cup. Of those 11, all 8 games played at home were won. Nepal has won 10 out of 12 games played at home in that circle.