Kathmandu, June 4: Nepal will bat first in the ICC T-20 Men’s World Cup cricket tournament. After the Netherlands won the toss and chose to field at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas of USA, Nepal was invited to bat first.
Both Nepal and Netherlands will be looking for victory in today’s first match. Both Nepal and the Netherlands are well-known rivals. In the tri-nation T-20 series held in Nepal three months ago, Netherlands won three match series by 2-1.
In 2015, Nepal and the Netherlands played against each other for the first time. So far, 11 matches have been completed between the two. Netherlands won 6 matches while Nepal won 5 matches.
This is the second participation of Nepal in the T-20 World Cup cricket, while it is the fifth participation of the Netherlands. Nepal played T-20 World Cup cricket for the first time in 2014. At that time, Nepal defeated Hong Kong and Afghanistan. After losing to Bangladesh, Nepal failed to reach the second round.
Nepal: Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh (wk), Anil Sah, Kushal Malla, Rohit Paudel (capt), Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulsan Jha, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Sagar Dhakal, Abinash Bohara
Netherlands: Max O’Dowd, Michael Levitt, Vikramjit Singh, Scott Edwards (capt and wk), Teja Nidamanuru, Bas de Leede, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
Nepal qualified for the World Cup for the second time by defeating the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the semi-finals of the Asia Qualifier held in Kathmandu last year. Twenty nations are participating in the ongoing T20 World Cup in America and the West Indies. In the World Cup, Nepal and the Netherlands are in Group D. South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are also in Nepal’s group.
