If they win, Nepal will move towards a clean sweep of the series for the first time in a foreign land
Nepali cricket team will enter the field against Scotland with high morale. Nepal is playing against home team Scotland in World Cup Cricket League-2 on Sunday. Due to the high results in the first two matches in Dundee, Nepal is confident of getting similar results again.
This is the third match that Nepal is going to play at Fort Hill. Nepal had an incredible 1-wicket victory over Scotland in their first match of this series on Monday. After Karan KC scored an unbeaten 65, Nepal completed the target of 297 runs in the last ball and crossed the biggest target in ODIs so far.
Nepal's energetic performance was not limited to this. Nepal won by 5 wickets against Netherlands on Wednesday with Arif Shaikh's 78 runs. The Nepali team managed to win the second consecutive victory by shocking the two top teams of League-2. Nepal is going to play again against Scotland in the 'double header'. Nepal's coach Stuart Law has said that his team's goal is high and the result will be high.
Before coming to Scotland, Nepal, which was at the bottom of League-2 with 6 points, climbed to seventh place after two wins. Nepal has scored 10 points in 14 matches. After Friday's win over the Netherlands, Scotland took their tally to 22 points from 18 games. The USA is in the top three positions with 28, Netherlands 26 and Oman 24 points. The top four teams from the eight-nation League-2 will qualify for the World Cup.
Scotland were tipped to top the table after winning at least 3 of the 4 matches in the series. However, Scotland had to suffer a bad shock in the first match against Nepal. If they defeat Nepal, Scotland will surpass Oman in the run rate and climb to the third place. If Scotland wins the remaining two matches against Nepal and the Netherlands, they will still reach the top spot. If Nepal wins the remaining 2 matches against Scotland and the Netherlands, it will surpass Namibia and reach the sixth position. Namibia has 14 points.
If they win, the Nepali team will move forward towards a series 'clean sweep' for the first time in a foreign land. Despite struggling in the League-2 table, Nepal's recent performances against Scotland have been very difficult. Nepal is undefeated in the last 5 matches against the British team. Nepal has won 4 out of 5 matches against Scotland and one match was canceled due to rain.
Kushal Bhurtel, Karan and Arif have scored half-centuries from Nepal. Opener Asif Sheikh, Bhim Sharkey and captain Rohit Paudel need to score big to keep Nepal's high rhythm. Here, Asif was dismissed for 20 and 19, Bhim 40 and 11 and Rohit 37 and 23 respectively. In the middle order, Dipendra Singh Airi and Gulshan Jha are playing good finisher roles. Captain Rohit says that his team will progress with every match.
Scotland had a hard-fought victory over the Netherlands on Friday. Batting first, Scotland scored 97 runs and lost 6 wickets. Mark Watt and Safyan Sharif put on a 91-run partnership for the ninth wicket to take Scotland to 262-9. The Dutch team that came in response was bowled out for 218 runs in 45 overs.
After Devrehate spinner Lalit Rajvanshi returned to the playing 11, Nepali team's bowling has become stronger. Lalit dismissed Netherlands captain Scott Edwards in his first ball. He also took the wicket of Jacques Lyon Cachet. Playing without Edwards, who was injured while batting in the match against Nepal, the batting of the Netherlands was weak against Scotland.
Nepal will end this League-2 journey by playing against the Netherlands on Tuesday.
