22 June, Dallas. Nepal is playing against Netherlands today in ICC T20 World Cup 2024. The game will start at 9:15 PM Nepali time at Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas, USA.
Nepal, aiming for the Super-8, needs a win in the first match. Group D consists of Nepal, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and South Africa. In the first match of Group D, Sri Lanka was defeated by South Africa by 6 wickets.
The second match between Nepal and Netherlands is going on in the ongoing T20 World Cup in Grand Prairie. Earlier, the first match was played between Canada and America.
Chasing the target of 195 runs given by Canada, America completed it losing 3 wickets in 17.4 overs. America’s Aaron Jones played an explosive innings of 94 runs off 40 balls with 10 sixes. Nepal was all out for 120 runs while chasing the target of 184 runs in the warm-up game against Canada.
With Grand Prairie batting support, Nepal will try to chase the target. Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airi is the leading all-rounder. Dipendra has been performing well in all the fields of batting, bowling and fielding. Dipendra should be supported by other players. Lack of top batting has been seen as a weakness of Nepal.
Openers Kushal Bhurtel and Asif Shaikh need to give a good start. Nepal has supported the team in these two openers despite their continuous poor performance. There are both opportunities and challenges to prove that belief in the World Cup.
One of Sandeep Zora and Anil Kumar Shah should be out when Dipendra Singh Airi returns to the team. Anil has been doing well in practice games. On the other hand, there is a strong possibility that Anil will play at number three due to the lack of good rhythm of the opener.
Fast bowlers Pratish GC and Kamal Singh Airy are certain to be on the bench. Sandeep Zora and Sagar Dhakal are also likely to be out. Nepal can move forward with first choice spinner Lalit. Death over has been a weakness of Nepal. Abhinash Bohra, the main bowler of the death overs, has to take extra responsibility.
On the other hand, the Netherlands is more dependent on top batsmen Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd and Bas de Liede. In the triangular series last March, Levitt won the series by scoring a half-century in two out of three matches against Nepal and a century against Namibia at the TU ground.
If the wickets of explosive batter Levitt and O’Dowd can be taken in time, Nepal can dominate the game.
The Netherlands scored 181 runs against Sri Lanka in the Parmup match and won by 20 runs. The middle order of the Netherlands will be Scott Edwards, Teja Ninamaniru and Sybrand Engelbrecht.
The spin attack of the Netherlands is relatively weak. Fast bowlers Paul van Marken, Bas de Liday and Kyle Keelin are likely to play.
Last March, the Netherlands completed the target of 185 runs in 19.3 overs to defeat Nepal by 4 wickets in the final of the triangular series. With this result, the morale of the Netherlands is somewhat stronger.
Head to head
There have been 12 matches in T20I between Nepal and Netherlands. Nepal won 5 matches, lost 6 matches and had no result in 1 match. 3 out of 5 games won by Nepal are at TU’s home ground.
“For the last 10 years, we have not played the World Cup. Nepal is very important for cricket. It was a dream of all of us to play in the World Cup. We got that opportunity with the Netherlands. We also have a responsibility”, Nepal’s captain Rohit Paudel said before the match against the Netherlands. He added, ‘After the game between America and Canada, it has been like a nice nervous night’s experience.’
Netherlands coach Ryan Cook said that Nepal is a good team at present and said that every match of the World Cup will be a big game.
There are some changes in our team from the last series with Nepal. Available players have come. There are also some new players. We have looked at tomorrow’s game,’ coach Ryan Cook said before playing against Nepal, ‘I think every game in the World Cup is a big game. Nepal has also played a good game at the present time.’
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