U-19 World Cup Cricket starts from today, Nepal’s first match on Jan 21
The 15th edition of the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup is starting today in South Africa. Ireland and America and South Africa and West Indies are playing in the opening match today. The game will start at 2:30 pm according to Nepali time.
16 teams including Nepal are participating in this World Cup. The participating teams are divided into 4 groups. Nepal is in Group D.
Earlier, the World Cup, which was scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka, was shifted to South Africa after the ICC suspended Sri Lankan cricket.
Nepal in World Cup after 8 years
Nepal is playing the U-19 World Cup after a long wait of 8 years. The last time Nepal played in the U-19 World Cup was in Bangladesh in 2016.
Earlier, Nepal played U-19 World Cup in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2016.
Nepal in complicated group
Group D: Nepal is in Group D a complicated group. Nepal is in the group with Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan. In the ICC ODI rankings, Nepal is 15th, Pakistan is fourth, New Zealand is fifth and Afghanistan is ninth. Nepal will play the first match against New Zealand on Sunday.
Nepal will face Pakistan on January 24 and Afghanistan on January 26 in the second match. In the previous World Cup, Pakistan reached the quarter-finals and Afghanistan reached the semi-finals.
If they finish in the top 3 of the group, Nepal will reach the Super Six. From this time, 3 teams from each group will enter the Super Six. Because of that, even if Nepal wins only one match in the group stage, Nepal’s chances to reach the Super Six will be strong. Nepal reached South Africa 2 weeks before the start of the tournament and played 4 warm up matches in South Africa.
Nepal played 2 unofficial and 2 official warm up games and won 3 games while one game was affected by rain. Nepal defeated Scotland and Namibia.
Nepal defeated Scotland by 135 in the first informal match and Namibia by 6 runs in the second informal warm-up match. In the first official warm-up match, Nepal defeated Scotland by 7 wickets according to the DLS method. The second official warm-up match between Nepal and West Indies Beach was affected by rain.
Dev Khanal becomes the seventh captain
This is the 8th participation of Nepal in the 15th edition of the U19 World Cup. So far, 6 captains from Nepal have led the Nepal U19 team.
Binod Das led the Nepali youth team for the first time in the U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2000, and in the tournament in New Zealand in 2002, Binod himself was the captain of Nepal. Similarly, Shakti Gauchan in 2004, Kanishk Chaulagai in 2006, Paras Khadka in 2008, Prithu Baskota in 2012 and Raju Rijal for the last time in 2016 led the Nepal U19 team.
RELATED NEWS
