Dallas [US], June 4 (ANI): Scott Edwards-led Netherlands won the toss and decided to field against Rohit Paudel’s Nepal in the 7th match of the T20 World Cup 2024 at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Tuesday.
The upcoming match will be Netherlands and Nepal’s first match of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024, however, both teams start with different perspectives.
The Dutch side had a very good tournament back in 2022, after removing South Africa and also ensuring that they had a straight qualification to this year’s tournament. On the other hand, Nepal will be taking part in the World Cup for the first time after 2014.
Nepal confirmed their spot in the T20 World Cup 2024 after reaching the finals of the Asia qualifiers.
This will be the first time Nepal will miss leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichanne even after he was acquitted of all charges.
Speaking at the toss, Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel said that they are looking forward to playing for the country in the World Cup.
“It is a big occasion for us, we’re here after 10 years, it was always a dream to play in a World Cup. Feel happy, playing for Nepal is a pleasure and I have enjoyed it. We’re looking to win this game and then take it one at a time. Toss doesn’t matter if you play good cricket,” Paudel said.
The Dutch skipper Scott Edwards said that the conditions in Dallas would be a bit early for the pacers.
“We are going to bowl first. Bit of conditions around, could be a bit early for the pacers. Our first goal is to get to the next round, we’ll need to play some good cricket. We come from a small country, we play a lot against each other in intrasquad games (on the lack of a lot of international cricket since the 2022 tournament). He’s a super talent, has played well recently and made some big runs (on Michael Levitt),” Edwards said.
However, the Dutch side will go into the match as the favourites, but Nepal have the potential to spoil the Netherlands’ confidence. This will be Nepal’s must-win match since they’ve to face cricket giants like South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in their upcoming matches.
Nepal (Playing XI): Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh (Wk), Anil Sah, Rohit Paudel (C), Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulsan Jha, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Abinash Bohara, Sagar Dhakal.
Netherlands (Playing XI): Michael Levitt, Max ODowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Bas de Leede, Scott Edwards (Wk/C), Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma. (ANI)
