ICC WORLD CUP CRICKET QUALIFIER PREVIEW FOR NEPAL

Nepali Cricket Supporters to welcome back the heroes in the Airport premises.

Portrait of Sandeep Lamichhane who was the man of the series in the ICC Division 2 Tournament.
ICC World Cup Qualifier Preview for NEPAL:

Vs. Zimbabwe:

As we all know Zimbabwe is test nation for a very long time now. They are one of the favorite to go the world cup. They are the home team and they know the conditions better than any other team in the tournament. They have a balanced side in both batting and bowling department. In batting department they have Solomon Mire, Hamilton Masakazda, Brendan Taylor, Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza. Mire is an attacking opening batsman who can take game away from any opposition. Both Masakadza and Taylor are experienced batsmen and they have more than 5000 ODI runs under their name. Ervine is one of the reliable middle order batsmen. Raza is an attacking middle order batsman and also handy off spinner who bowls full quota of his overs. For Nepal key will be to take wickets early and at regular interval otherwise it will be difficult to contain the team with such a batting depth within the average score. In bowling department they have Graeme Cremer, Tendai Chatara, Kyle Jarvis, Blessing Muzarabani and Brian Vitori. Cremer is an experienced leg spinner who has more than 100 ODI wickets under his name. All Chatara, Jarvis and Vitori are experience pacers. Muzarabani is a young tall and quick pacer and will be difficult to tackle. The challenge for the Nepal will be to face pacers bowling at good areas and reading the variations of Cremer. Nepal needs to build the partnership regularly and batsman getting start need to convert those starts in big scores.

Vs. Scotland:

They won the previous edition of world cup qualifier (top 12 ODI sides directly qualified for world cup 2015 and two from this qualifier). They have been playing highest level of associate cricket for long time and currently have ODI status. Recently they have beaten Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe and finished second in world cricket league championship. Most of the Scotland player play county cricket. In batting department they have Kyle Coetzer, Matthew Cross, Richie Berrington and Calum MacLeod. Coetzer is the leading run scorer for Scotland in ODI and has 10 list A (4 ODI) hundreds. MacLeod is another batsman who can score big and he has 6 list A (5 ODI) hundreds. Cross and Berrington are middle order experienced batsmen who can provide valuable contribution to their side. They have couple of experienced fast bowlers in Alasdair Evans and Safyaan Sharif. Apart from them they have pretty young bowling line up and couple of all-rounders.

Vs. Afghanistan:

No team has improved faster than the Afghanistan in world cricket. At around 2008 they are in division 5 and now they have test status. They have played a lot of bi-lateral ODI series against full members recently and performed well as well. Currently they are leading the ODI series against Zimbabwe by 3-1. They are one of the favorite to qualify for world cup. In batting department they have Mohammad Shahzad, Rahmat Shah, Asghar Stanikzai, Najibullah Zardan and Mohammad Nabi. Shahzad is an attacking opening batsman. Rahmat and Asghar are middle order batsmen capable of building inning and playing big innings. Najibullah and Nabi provide the fire power down the order. The key for the Nepal against Afghanistan will to be taking wicket at regular intervals like they took in 2014 world cup match. Otherwise they are capable of scoring big and quickly. In bowling department they have Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zardan, Mujeeb Zadran and Mohammad Nabi. Rashid has very deceptive leg break and googly. Mujeeb is a mystery spinner who bowls off spin, carrom ball, googly. Dawlat is an experienced pace bowler and Nabi is an economical off spinner. The challenge for Nepal against Afghanistan’s spinners will be to pick their variations.

Vs. Hong Kong:

Hong Kong got ODI status in 2014 and played both inter-continental cup and world cricket league championship. They finished third in the recently concluded wcl championship. In batting department they have Babar Hayat, Anshy Rath and Nizakat Khan. Babar scored 1138 runs at an average of 49.47 in list A. Rath scored 874 runs at an average of 58.26 in list A. Nizakat scored 937 run at an average of 31.23 in list A. Hong Kong’s batting heavily depends upon Babar and Rath and they will be key wickets to take. In bowling department they have Nadeem Ahmed, Tanwir Afzal and Ehsan Khan. Nadeem is a slow left arm orthodox bowler and has 55 list A wickets in 37 matches. Tanwir is right arm pacer and has 35 list A wickets in 26 matches. Ehsan Khan is an off spinner and has 30 list A wickets in 15 matches.

Nepal Cricket Team:

Nepal has strong bowling lineup but in batting department our batsmen failed to contribute. In recently concluded division 2 apart from Paras Khadka no other top and middle order batsmen played key innings. Rohit Paudel showed some sign of talent and he will surely improve with time. In batting department our experienced players Gyandendra Malla, Paras Khadka and Sarad Vesawkar need to stand up and play big innings as we cannot depend on lower order to decide our fate. Malla, Khadka and Vesawkar have scored 831 runs at an average of 29.67, 951 runs at an average of 35.22 and 785 runs at an average of 32.7 respectively in list A and all of them are technically sound batsmen. The youngsters Dilip Nath, Dipendra Singh Airee, Aarif Sheikh and Rohit Paudel need to provide valuable support to experienced players and need to play some key innings. All the batsmen need to chip in with some valuable contributions and need to build partnership especially at the top of the order. Those batsmen who get starts need to bat deep and play big innings. Partnership at the top of the order will be the key for the big scores. In bowling department we have Basant Regmi, Sompal Kami, Sandeep Lamichhane, Karan KC, Lalit Singh Bhandari and Shakti Gauchan. Regmi and Lamichhane are the spin twins for Nepal and will play key role in the overall performance of Nepal. Regmi is an experienced bowler and Lamichhane is an exciting young talent. Regmi and Lamichhane have taken 40 and 29 wickets respectively in list A. Sompal will be the key to provide early breakthrough and he has taken most (44) wickets for Nepal in list A. Karan and Lalit will be the other pace bowling option. Shakti is also an experienced player but at the moment we have two best spinners and he will play the role of backup spinner. Karan played a hell of knock to make it possible for Nepal to reach qualifier but does not have good time with bowl taking only 2 wickets in 6 matches in a seam bowler favoring pitches. We will definitely need an early breakthrough and wickets at regular intervals if we want to contain these quality sides within the decent totals. If that does not happen, Nepal has an unexposed death over bowling and it will be very difficult to restrict the batsmen like Sikadar Raza, Najibullah Zardan and Mohammad Nabi.

Top two sides from the qualifier will qualify for world cup and top 3 associate teams apart from Netherlands (wclc champion and will get ODI status after qualifier) will get ODI status for 4 years until the next world cup qualifier. If Nepal can finish within top 3 in group stage, it will guarantee an ODI status and will also get a chance to play more games against top quality sides. If we finish at no. 4 or 5 in group stage our first playoff match will be the key match to decide who gets the ODI status (like a knockout match) assuming that West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland and Netherland finish within top 8 in the qualifier. If we get ODI status we will be able to compete in ICC Inter-continental Cup and World Cricket League Championship and there will be more funding from ICC for cricket development. Let’s hope Nepal will perform better in qualifier and we will get ODI status.

Jay Nepal Jay Nepali Cricket!!!