Continuing its winning streak, Kenya had defeated Vanuatu by 33 runs in their first match and Canada by 15 runs in the second match. With two wins from as many matches, Kenya stands as a strong contender for the final round of world cup. [break]
Nepal had defeated Kenya 11 years back in Kandy during the U-19 World Cup in which Nepal had restricted Kenya at 93 runs chasing the total of 107. Mehboob Aalam and Binod Das had taken three wickets each while Aalam was the highest scorer with 15 runs that included a boundary in Nepal´s innings. This was the only previous encounter between Kenya-Nepal.
Kenya´s senior team was the strongest against the non test playing nations as they had reached the semifinal in 2003 World Cup. But the senior team´s performance has gone down in the recent times.
Nepal had qualified for the super league in U-19 World Cup in 2000 defeating Kenya while they play shared points against South Africa and Pakistan due to rainfall. After that tournament, Nepal had defeated teams like Pakistan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and South Africa and proved that Nepal was capable of beating any team in the U-19 level.
However, there was a different story in 2010 World Cup as Nepal failed to qualify, and its performance has raised questions regarding consistency in performance. The match to be played in Railway Union Cricket Club, Sandymount, Dublin, on Sunday will be vital to keep its hope afloat for qualifying into the final rounds.
Following Friday´s defeat, Nepal got defeated by Scotland for the second time. Previously, Nepal lost to the Scottish team by three wickets during 2004 Word Cup.
But it turned to be the first defeat for Prithu Baskota as the skipper. Nepal had won the title of ACC U-15 and U-16 under the captaincy of Baskota. In the finals of ACC U-19 Baskota was ruled out after he picked up knee injury held in Thailand earlier this year. Nepal had lost the ACC U-19 final against Afghanistan.
In a telephonic conversation with Republica, coach Jagat Tamata said that the team was facing difficulty in adjusting with the weather of Ireland.
“Though the spinners are taking wicket, they are having difficulty in turning the ball in their pace.” Coach Tamata further added that nothing can be expected in Ireland as strong teams like Afghanistan had lost their both matches while Canada lost one. “Our team fell victim to a new rule that forbade change of ball during the match against Scotland despite the ball was wet."
Coach Tamata plans to replace Krishna Karki with a batsman after watching the practice session of Kenya. “Kenya cannot play the spinners, so we are planning to use more spinners.”
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