Nepal, on home soil, starts ICC CWC League 2 poorly

Kathmandu, Feb. 26: Whitewashing the 3 ODI series against Canada a couple of days before the 2nd edition of the ICC CWC League 2 (2024-27) kicked off, Nepal was expected to give good results in the inaugural tri-series of League 2 against Namibia and the Netherlands. 

Talking to the press in the pre-match conference before the tri-series started, Nepal’s skipper Rohit Kumar Paudel shared that the team hoped to start the league properly this time compared to the inaugural edition (2019-23) of the league. “We are more confident about our upcoming ICC League 2 matches after a 3-0 win over Canada,” he added. 

However, losing its third match of the tri-series against the Dutch side on Sunday, Nepal began its League 2 campaign with only one win in four matches. As per the four-year cycle, each of the eight nations in League 2 will host three series and play in six series away from home. Nepal will host Oman and the UAE in April 2026 and Scotland and the United States in November 2026.

Nepal’s next League 2 tri-series is against Canada and Oman in September 2024 with Canada as the host. Dutch win by 8 wickets

While Namibia broke the deadlock and registered a win despite batting first against the Dutch in the duo’s second face-off in the tri-series on February 23, Nepal could not repeat it on February 25.

Playing with a line-up comprising mostly of batsmen, Nepal could not cross the 200-run mark after having been given to bat first by the Netherlands.

While it was a good start as Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh were partnering well till the 8th over, Nepal started losing its balance in the 9th. 

With Aasif departing for 17 runs off 27 balls in 8.3 overs, Anil Kumar Sah (7 off 11) and Kushal Malla (2 off 9) followed him by the end of the 13th over. 

Moreover, after skipper Rohit Paudel (16 off 40) and Dipendra Singh Airee (1 off 11), Bhurtel felt the lack of a good partner. Despite the hardship, Bhurtel registered a half-century before departing as the 7th wicket in the 37th over and leaving the team at 122/7. 

Bhim Sharki, in at seven, was the sixth wicket of Nepal as he was bowled by Bas de Leede for a duck in the 30th over. It was thanks to 22 runs by Aarif Sheikh, in at eight, and 26 runs by Karan KC, in at 10, that took Nepal to 172 runs before getting bundled out in 49.3 overs.

Pacer Vivian Kingma and spinner Aryan Dutt bagged three wickets each for the Netherlands while Leede claimed two. Roelof van der Merwe also took a wicket, of Bhurtel. 

On the other hand, the Netherlands started the chase by hitting safe boundaries in poor deliveries. Until Nepal broke the first partnership, Max O’Dowd and Michael Levitt took the Dutch side to 61 runs. Levitt (39 off 34) was bowled by Airee in 8.4 overs. O’Dowd also followed Levitt to the pavilion in the 12th over as he was caught behind the stumps in the ball of Lalit Rajbanshi. However, taking the matter into their own hands, two new batsmen, Vikramjit Singh and Sybrand Engelbrecht won the match for the Netherlands.

While Sybrand fell short of four runs for his half-century, Vikramjit completed his. The duo stayed not out with Vikramjit at 58 off 92 and Sybrand at 46 off 75 as the target got chased in 37.5 overs.

After ending the first triangular series with poor show, Coach Monty Desai expressed disappointment in Nepali players for not performing well on their home soil. He said, “We were unable to take advantage of the home pitch. TU is our practice ground and these players also participate in domestic tournaments on the same pitch.”

“The players have plenty of experience, but they need to demonstrate their ability to perform under pressure. `”