Cricket
Nepal look to recover against Sri Lanka at T20 World Cup
The Lankans are under pressure after losing both of their opening group matches and will also look to get their World Cup campaign back on track with a victory.Binod Pandey
Nepal will aim to recover from their T20 World Cup opening loss against the Netherlands when they take on Sri Lanka in their second Group D match at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Lauderhill, the United States on Wednesday.
But defeating the Lankans will be a difficult task for the Rhinos.
Sri Lanka are under pressure after losing both of their opening group matches—against Bangladesh by two wickets and South Africa by six wickets—and the 2014 champions will also look to get back their World Cup campaign on track, starting with a victory against Nepal.
The defeats have put Sri Lanka at the bottom of the group and will now need to win their remaining two matches to have a chance to reach the Super Eight.
Only the top two teams from each group progress to the next stage.
This will be the first meeting between Sri Lanka and Nepal in an international T20 match.
The Rhinos, who are looking to progress out of the group stage for the first time in their second only World Cup appearance, sit in the fourth position in the five-team group.
They will also need to win their remaining three matches to make it to the playoffs but their loss to familiar rivals Netherlands has been a thorn in their Super Eight hopes.
Rohit Paudel was the only batter to look comfortable against the Dutch and will look to continue that momentum, while big hitter Dipendra Singh Airee will seek to regain his form after a poor show in the opening game.
The Rhinos will also need to work on their openers Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh who have failed to build any impressive partnership recently. Against the Dutch, the duo were able to make just a 10-run opening stand, and both were out for single-digit scores.
Nepal’s strength will probably lie in their bowling unit again. Nepal displayed a solid performance with the ball that gave the Dutch a tough time in their chase of a low 107-run target. This was a continuation of their good account with the ball from their warm-up game against Canada.
They will now aim to exploit weakness in Sri Lanka’s batting that has remained very inconsistent at the World Cup.
Against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka were fast to start and progressed to 100-3 after 14 overs but could only add 24 runs from their last six overs.
The Lankans were all out for 77 against South Africa in their opening game.
But Wanindu Hasaranga’s team will be in no mood to show mercy against Nepal. Yet their game will mostly depend on Pathum Nissanka, who made an outstanding 47 against the Tigers.