Nepal takes on Namibia in the semifinal of the Plate Championship of the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup at the Johor Cricket Academy Ground on Tuesday in what will be a rematch of their last group game in Penang.
Nepal registered a narrow three-run victory while defending 164. It was the first victory for defending Plate champion team. The team carried the winning momentum into the quarterfinal crushing Zimbabwe – a Test playing nation by 99 runs on Sunday.
“The gamble we took paid off against Namibia, otherwise we did not do anything exceptional,” Nepali skipper Paras Khadka conceded about the league match victory. “We won that match without putting up a good score, but that does not mean we will be complacent. Namibia is a good team,” he added.
Batting has been the Nepal’s Achilles heel throughout the tournament as the top order, with the exception of opener Mahesh Chhetri, has failed to contribute. However, the big victory against Zimbabwe even without good batting has given the team a confidence that it can beat any team if the batting clicks.
“I am very worried about batting. Namibia is a strong side. We were lucky to beat them. It’s just because their set batsman played a bad shot that we won,” Nepali coach Roy Dias said. “Apart from Puspa, no one from the new lot has scored and the big four (except Mahesh) have been failing.”
“It’s a 50-50 game,” Dias said. “Malaysia easily beat Zimbabwe and Namibia hammered Malaysia by nine wickets.”
It’s time for the batsmen to put their hands up and be counted to help Nepal defend the Plate crown as the team cannot just rely on the bowling artillery.
A few batsmen have looked good. “We have not been able to convert starts into big scores,” Paras, who himself has thrown away a couple of starts, said. “We have been losing wickets at regular intervals and we have to stop that,” he explained hoping that the bowler would continue to fire.
Big hitting Rom Shrestha, who had to be withdrawn just minutes before the start against Zimbabwe due to weakness, has recovered fully and is expected to play.
On Monday, it rained here but if rain intervenes, the match will resume from where it was stopped on Wednesday, the reserve day, if the result cannot be obtained using D/L method, which requires at least 20 overs in each innings.
BY PREM DHAKAL, Johar Bahru, Malaysia