“Our main strength is spin attack and if the batsmen give us a cushion of 180 to 200 runs, our bowlers are capable of sealing victory for us,” said Tamata. “The batsmen also have that caliber but they have to prove it on the given day,” he added.[break]
Tamata said Afghanistan could be the toughest opponent but his team is cautious about every opponent. “The age-group teams do not have big differences in quality. With good spin attack and fielding, we can win if the batsmen put 180 to 200 runs on the board,” he said.
“I´ve gone through the scoreboards of Scotland and Ireland in the European qualification tournament and I can say that we can beat them if our batting lives up to our expectations,” said Tamata.
Tamata said that the Nepali team has equally good medium pacers. “Avinash Karna and Krishna Karki have been bowling well and all-rounders Pradeep Airee and Faijlur Rehman give us options in pace attack,” said Tamata. “Medium pacers are under the shadow of spinners despite taking wickets because the spinners have been winning matches for us,” he added.
Meanwhile, captain Prithu Baskota also said that Nepal has a balanced team. He claimed that the inclusion of batsman Subedu Pandey, orthodox bowler Nischal Pandey and medium pacer Rupesh Shrivastav in the team has enhanced their bench strength. “We have a more balanced team than we had during the ACC U-19 Elite Cup,” said Baskota.
Nepal is to play a warm-up match against Namibia on Tuesday and hopes to acclimatize in Ireland from the game.
Nepal had qualified to the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifiers after finishing runner-up in the ACC U-19 Elite Cup held in Thailand earlier this year.
Nepal will take on Afghanistan on July 28 in the opening match of the tournament. The other participating teams are the US, Canada, Namibia, Kenya, Scotland, Ireland, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
The qualifying tournament is played by the top two countries of each of the five ICC regions. The top six teams from the round-robin event will qualify to join the Test-playing countries in the U-19 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia in 2012.
Related story
Brazil's new coach sees risk of not qualifying for World Cup
