Hong Kong has already secured semifinal berth from Group A with three victories in a row while Nepal and Malaysia are level on two points from two matches each. Hong Kong had defeated both Nepal and Malaysia by six wickets. Nepal had defeated the Maldives by 76 runs in its first match. Likewise, Malaysia had defeated Singapore by six wickets.
As Nepal is to take on lowly Singapore and Malaysia is to take on another minnow the Maldives on Sunday in their last matches, Saturday´s match could be a virtual quarterfinal for both the teams.
Nepali team coach Pubudu Dassanayake, who termed the defeat to Hong Kong a ´bad day´, said his side would bounce back and go for win against Malaysia. "I´m confident that the team would put up a good show on Saturday. We are still a good side," claimed Dassanayake.
After the defeat to Hong Kong, Nepal could make two changes in the team to face Malaysia. Pacer Chandra Sawad could replace another pacer Amrit Bhattarai while Prithu Baskota could replace either all-rounder Manjeet Shrestha or spinner Sanjam Regmi.
Dias factor and Malaysia
Roy Luke Dias, the former coach of the Nepali national team, is the coach of Malaysia now and his 10-year-long experience in Nepal could prove to be a challenge for the Nepali team on Saturday.
Dias expects the match to be exciting. "We know about Nepal and it is one of the toughest opponents in the tournament. However, cricket is a match of 11 versus 11 and I think the match will not be one-sided," said Dias.
This is the third T20 encounter between Nepal and Malaysia. Nepal had defeated Malaysia by 21 runs in the first edition of the tournament in 2007 but lost to Malaysia by six wickets in the 2009 edition.
Meanwhile, Malaysian captain Suhan Kumar could be a real threat to Nepal on Saturday. Kumar, who plays professional cricket in Australia, is well-known for his blistering knocks. He had scored 70 runs off 37 balls against Singapore on Thursday in the ongoing tournament to prove how effective he could be in the T20 format.
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