Nepal's last resort for World Cup Qualifier ticket - beat Canada

Nepal lost the second spot of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers Division 2 points table to Namibia after the latter defeated Kenya in a third-time-lucky match. It seemed like the weather gods had taken a disliking to the cricket teams of Namibia and Kenya and the match between the two kept getting postponed because of heavy rain.

Originally scheduled to be played on Friday, it was first shifted to Saturday where Kenya got all out for 83 runs, thanks to Namibian bowler Tangeni Lungameni’s career-best performance of 3 wickets for 6 runs. But Namibia’s chase lasted only five overs as rain once again interrupted and shifted the match to Tuesday.

On Tuesday, however, the match did happen – Kenya’s batting performance did not show much improvement from the last one as only Dhiren Gondaria (60) and Alex Obanda (28) reached double digits, taking the score to 110, which Namibia chased down in 16 overs.

Prospects look bright for Nepal

Back to Nepal – they had snatched the second spot from UAE after defeating Kenya on Monday. But even though Namibia and Nepal both have 6 points each from 4 matches, the second position in the league table goes to Namibia because of a higher run rate. Nepal has its NRR in negative right now.

So the only option left for the continental team is to beat the table topper Canada in the match scheduled to be played on February 14. The task is monumental as Canada is a strong contender and also the winner of the Division 3 tournament played in 2017. But on the other hand, if they can pull it off, Nepal will be playing the finals of this tournament and also book their seats for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers to be played in March.

The finalists of the Division 2 tournament will join the bottom four teams of the ICC ODI Championship ranking and the top four teams from the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship to compete for the remaining two spots for the World Cup 2019.