Nepal V West Indies

Nepal the defending Plate champion would be fighting its pride on Saturday 1st March, as this World Cup has been disappointing so far now. Despite reaching the plate final, its will be afailure if we cannot win the Plate atleast.

Nepal have good bowlers and 4 of our bowlers are inside top 12 wicket takes of the series. Paras Khadka and Raj Shrestha being the pick. Amit Bhattrai and Rahul Bishwakarma both are providing breaks in between. Paras in particular have taken 12 wickets at 11.33. He needs to fire for us to win this match.

Our batting is in disarray. We havent been able to convert our good start to good total. Middle order is not firing at all. Gyanendra Malla has been the biggest failure who just scored 25 runs in 5 innings. Paras is also struggling. We are depending in the lower order for runs. Mahesh Chetri have been better than all other. The leading scorer of the team has just an average of 25.40. We need better than this to win against team like West Indies.

Mahesh Chettri has been phenomenal with the glove. He has dismissed 14 batsman with his glovework in 5 match. Most surprisingly, 9 out of that 14 coming from stumping, which shows his brilliance.

Nepal needs to improve batting and keep on bowling and fielding as they have done against all other teams so far. A total of 230 would be very tugh for Windies to chase, given the way our bowlers are bowling.

Best of Luck boys

I do not understand why Paras opted to bat first on such a moist pitch after the rain? Was the toss decision made before it rained?

Well, to reach Plate Championship by beating some relatively good teams is good. West Indies is just very good team. Beating the test nations like South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan in the past does not prove that Nepal has to beat them, or West Indies again.

I really appreciate how Nepalese U-19 team went to the tournament itself and performed so good despite lack of facilities and turmoil at home. I really hate to see if Paras does not get a financial sponsorship, and refrain from Nepali Cricket. We already lost good players in the past like Kanishka Chaugai and Bardan Chalise due to financial insecurity.

Soon we are going to loose Paras Khadka too. He is also planning for higher studies abroad.

The void Kaniska left in Nepali cricket is too large that it havent been filled yet after almost one n half year. Nepali cricket was pushed two year back each by Kaniska and Brdan. Same will happen when Paras leaves.

Kaniska was a solid opener, and now the senior team is struggling to find partner for Mehboob Alam.  Bardan was a hard hitting middle order batsman with good bowling skill, which could have provided batting stability to the team which have no depth in batting. Now, Paras seems to be heading away from the cricket, so Nepal will loose another genuine all rounder. I cant see Nepali cricket at senior level improving in this manner.

I do not blame any of the players leaving the country. I feel for them.

Based on the comments: The moral of the story is that:

If you plan to go for college abroad, involve yourself in a sport that you can possibly carry on through college, example soccer, basketball, tennis, etc. and possibly get full scholarship to pay for your education and at the same time follow your passion. Make yourself marketable.

If you are really passionate about Cricket then you're pretty much screwed since you were born in Nepal where there's not much meaning to this game other than a few fans, amateur players and crappy fields.