A win against the United States will keep Nepal's chances of reaching the top four alive, while the team's enthusiasm has been boosted by the balance in their batting.
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Nepal has an opportunity to end its Cricket World Cup League 2 journey on home soil in style. Nepal will play top-ranked USA at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Stadium in Kirtipur on Friday. This will be Nepal's last home game in the 2024-26 League 2 journey.
Nepal has won 6 out of 11 matches at home, including one against the USA on Saturday. Nepal had a great start to the batting by restricting the USA to under 200 runs after a century from Kushal Bhurtel. This is Nepal's first win over the USA since the 2023 World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe.
A team will play a total of 36 matches in the eight-nation League 2. Out of these, 12 will be played at home, 12 at neutral ground and 12 at the opponent's ground. In the last round of the 2020-23 League 2, Nepal had won 10 out of 12 matches at home. Accordingly, Nepal has achieved poor results at home in this cycle, but Nepal seems to have won fewer matches compared to the previous cycle due to strong opponents.
Nepal had won only one match against the Netherlands in the first series of this cycle in 2024, while it had lost two matches against Namibia and one match against the Dutch team. In the home series involving the UAE and Oman last month, Nepal had won both matches against the UAE and one match against Oman, while it had lost one match against Oman. In this series, Nepal won one match against Scotland and lost the other match.
Nepal will 'clean sweep' the League 2 tour played at home against Pubudu Dassanayake's team after winning against the US. The last time the US came to Kathmandu in 2020, it had lost both matches to Nepal. The US defeated Scotland by 6 wickets on Wednesday, which was the first win for the US in League 2 on Nepali soil.
The US came to Nepal at the top of League 2, but after losing the first two matches against Scotland and Nepal, the team handed over the top spot to Scotland. However, the US has climbed back to the top of League 2 after the victory over Scotland. After regular captain Monank Patel was injured in the first match, the US batting balance has deteriorated a bit.
‘We were not given any opportunity in the last match against Nepal, Nepal played very well. Our goal is to play the ODI World Cup, so our team has been improving, and winning the match against Scotland is a sign of that,’ said veteran US seamer Saurabh Netrabhalkar after the match against Scotland on Wednesday. ‘I can’t say anything about the result in the match against Nepal, but I definitely expect it to be competitive.’ NPL has helped Nepali players a lot. Nepal's level has also increased.''
When Netrabhalkar came to Nepal 6 years ago, he was the captain of the US, when the US was all out for 35 runs in the match against Nepal. This was a negative record for the lowest score in an ODI. Despite not being able to bring results in their favor, the US has been performing effectively this time, especially the aggressive batting has made the team very strong.
The US will further strengthen its top position with a victory over Nepal. The US is in the first two places with 38 points from 27 matches and Scotland with 38 points from 32 matches, but the US is ahead due to net run rate. Oman is in 31 from 28 matches, Netherlands is in 24 matches with 22, Nepal is in 27 matches with 22, Namibia is in 28 matches with 22, Canada is in 24 matches with 22 and UAE is in 3rd to 8th place respectively with 14 points from 24 matches. The top four teams will qualify directly for the World Cup qualifiers. Nepal moved up from seventh to fifth place after their victory against Scotland on Monday. Nepal needs to win against the United States to maintain its slim chance of making the top four. Nepal will then travel to the Netherlands in July to play against the Dutch and Namibia, and Muscat in October to play against Oman and Canada to conclude its League 2 journey. After Kusal Bhurtel returned to the team and Ishan Pandey got a chance, the Nepali team's batting balance has become stronger. Kusal, who returned to the team after being 'dropped' in three matches, scored an unbeaten 120 runs against the United States. Ishan scored 55 runs against Scotland. After Ishan's inclusion, the drought of open-handed batters in the Nepali team was also broken.
