Captain of Nepali U-16 cricket team Swichan Shah had vowed before the beginning of the ACC U-16 Elite Cup. And, Shah and his teammates will face their acid test on Tuesday as they take on Singapore in the final of the tournament. [break]
Shah and his boys hope to keep their words in the final to be played at the TU Cricket Grounds, Kirtipur.
Nepal won all three group stage matches and the semifinal against Malaysia en route to the final. Nischal Pandey, Sharad Khadka and Dipendra Chand have done well during the group matches and semifinal but skipper Shah and others are yet to perform as expected.
Singapore also have won all matches during their course to the final and are supposed to be stronger than Nepal regarding tournament performance.
"Comparatively we are not the best side in the tournament. We should give credit to the boys for reaching the final," said Nepal´s Sri Lankan coach Roy Luke Dias.
"We are relying on our spinners only. When I was given the team, I was told that there are a number of good batsmen but only Nischal, Sharad and Dipendra are doing well. To win the final, everybody in the team should play better cricket," he added.
Dias viewed that the final is against the toughest team of the tournament. "I have talked to officials from Singapore. They have had good training for the tournament though I don´t mean that we are under-prepared," said Dias. He urged the players to perform well in all the three departments -- bowling, batting and fielding - to win the final.
Nischal Pandey is a player to watch in Tuesday´s final. Pandey has scored 150 runs in the last four matches and taken 15 wickets. Likewise, semifinal heroes Dipendra Chand, Sanam Shrestha and Bibek Chaudhary could not be counted less.
On the other hand, Singapore´s Vikas Rajgopal could be the headache for Nepal. Rajgopal scored 68 runs against Hong Kong in the semifinal and contributed 61 and 56 runs against Thailand and Malaysia, respectively.
Nepal have won all the ACC age group tournaments at least once. Nepal had won the ACC U-15 Elite Cup twice and U-17 once while they have won the ACC U-19 Elite Cup four times.
However, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) is organizing the ongoing tournament for the first time. Following the age verification problems, ACC has withdrawn the U-15 and U-17 tournaments from its schedules and introduced the U-16 tournament.
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