As part of the ICC Men's World Cup Qualifiers, the Nepali National Men's Cricket Team is starting the tournament against test nation Zimbabwe on Sunday.
This is the first time in the history of Nepali cricket that they are going to compete in ODI format with any test nation for the first time. How will the Nepalese cricket team perform against Zimbabwe, which has a strong history on the world cricket map, in a huge tournament like the World Cup qualifiers? We have came up with some stats.
Flashback: Nepal vs Zimbabwe 2018
Zimbabwe ranked 11th in the ODI ranking and Nepal ranked 14th in ODI previously faced each other in the previous edition of the World Cup Qualifier held in 2018.
Nepal was captained by Paras Khadka in the match held on March 4, 2018 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. After winning the toss against Nepal, the home team Zimbabwe batted first. With the help of Sikander Raja and Brendan Taylor's century, they made a huge total of 380 runs after losing 6 wickets in the scheduled 50 overs against Nepal. While chasing runs in reply, Nepal managed to make only 264 runs while losing 8 wickets in 50 overs. Zimbabwe won the match by 116 runs at the end.
In the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, Nepal placed in a group including Zimbabwe, Scotland, Afghanistan, and Hong Kong, could not defeat anyone except Hong Kong finished 4th in the group and was eliminated from the group competition.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe, who managed to make it to the super six by falling into the best two from Nepal's group, finished third in the last six, while the West Indies and Afghanistan above them got a place in the 2019 World Cup. Zimbabwe, which has been playing in the World Cup continuously since 1983, was eliminated from the group stage for the first time.
Zimbabwe: Stronger side yet defeat able
Zimbabwe, which is a full member of ICC since 1992, has participated in all 9 ODI World Cups before and after that. In the 1999 and 2003 World Cups, he managed to reach the Super Six. Zimbabwe is a three-time winner of the World Cup qualifiers.
Despite being a Test nation, Zimbabwe's record in ODI cricket with associate nations is not very good. The well-known rivals, the Netherlands, Scotland and the UAE, have already defeated Nepal. In this sense, the emerging Nepali team is not in a position to play in fear against him on Sunday.
Nepal & Zimbabwe recent forms:
Talking about the latest form, the home team Zimbabwe defeated Oman by 28 runs in the first practice match and defeated Scotland by 6 wickets in the second match.
At the same time, Zimbabwe has defeated Scotland and Oman has met Nepal in the warm-up match. In South Africa, Scotland and the Netherlands suffered defeats in two warm-up matches. Nepal came to Zimbabwe for the World Cup qualifiers. The first warm-up match was defeated by UAE and the second match was won against Oman.
A battle to witness between Chevrons & young Gorkhali Bloods
Sunday's match between Zimbabwe, who has left a strong mark in World Cup cricket since the 1990s, and Nepal, the emerging powerhouse of Asian cricket, will be very exciting. Nepal, which has seen a bad rhythm in some of the practice games, has maintained its winning streak by winning against Oman in the last game. At the time of losing the ODI status, Nepal has won the ACC Men's Premiere Cup for the first time with 11 consecutive wins out of 12, and wants to book a ticket for the World Cup to be held in India next year.