In their first match under the ICC T20I World Cup Cricket, which will be held in America and West Indies from Sunday, Nepal will face well-known rival Netherlands on Tuesday. In this article, we will discuss the live broadcast of the highly anticipated match between Nepal and Netherlands along with the match preview.
Nepal vs Netherlands head to head
While reaching the World Cup as the runner-up of the Asian Qualifiers, the Netherlands, which finished in the best 8 of the last year's T20 World Cup, got a place in the World Cup directly.
The 13th cricket match will be held on Tuesday between 17th-ranked Nepal and 15th-ranked Netherlands two places higher. Among the 12 matches played so far between these two, Netherlands has won 6 matches while Nepal has won 5 matches.
The last time these two met was in the three nations t20 series between Namibia, Nepal and Netherlands held in Nepal last February and March. Only in that series, Nepal and the Netherlands met 3 times. In the first meeting, Nepal suffered a defeat by a narrow margin of 2 runs with the Netherlands, and in the second meeting, Nepal won by 6 wickets. In the same way, Nepal failed to win the tri nations t20i series after losing by 4 wickets against the guests in the final.
Netherlands: The giant killer in world cricket
If we talk about the Netherlands, they created a sensation by defeating the strong Test nations Zimbabwe and South Africa in the Super 12 of the 2022 T20 World Cup last year. This is not the only remarkable success of the Netherlands. In the 2009 edition, the Netherlands won by 4 wickets against England, that too at Lord's, which is considered the 'Mecca' of cricket. This is the 6th participation for the Netherlands, who have participated in 5 out of 6 T20 World Cups since 2009.
Toppling strong nations at major events is the hallmark of the Netherlands. The Netherlands beat South Africa and Bangladesh in the ODI World Cup in India in November. In this year's World Cup warm-up match, the Netherlands defeated Sri Lanka by 20 runs. Netherlands scored 181 runs and bowled out Sri Lanka for 161 runs. This shows the all-round ability of the Dutch team. Before the main event of the World Cup, the Netherlands won a 20-run victory over Sri Lanka in the recently concluded warm-up match.
The Netherlands team under the captaincy of Scott Edwards has experienced players like Bas de Lied, Logan van Beek, Max O'David, Sibrand Engelbrecht, Vikram Singh, Wesley Baresi. Associate Player of the Year Allander De Lied is the team's key player. But for 24 years, he has rarely played twenty-20 cricket for the national team. Having taken 13 wickets in the 2022 World Twenty20, he recently played in the Twenty20 against Ireland, Scotland and in practice matches against Sri Lanka.
Nepal: The struggling team with comeback after a decades
On the other hand, Nepal, who played the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh for the first time in 2014, made it to the World Cup again after 10 years. In the history of T20 World Cup, while playing only 3 matches, Nepal has lost only 1 match. Hong Kong won by 80 runs while winning by 9 runs against strong Afghanistan. Ironically, after losing to Bangladesh by 8 wickets, Nepal was eliminated from the tournament.
Nepal is making its much-awaited comeback in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup on Tuesday, playing against the Netherlands, which has become a regular opponent. Nepal, who returned to the Twenty20 World Cup after a decade, is expected to catch the rhythm from this match to be held at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas.
Television Broadcast
- Star Sports: The official broadcaster for the ICC events in India and its subcontinent (Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, and Bangladesh).
- Sky Sports: Coverage in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
- Fox Sports: Coverage in Australia
- Willow TV: Coverage in the United States.
- SuperSport: Coverage in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
- PTV & Ten sports: Coverage in Pakistan.
- T-Sports: Coverage in Bangladesh.
A mountain to climb in the group of death
Since there are much stronger teams than themselves in the group, Nepal is betting to give their best from the first match. Apart from the Netherlands, Nepal will play against Sri Lanka, South Africa and Bangladesh in Group D. All the teams are stronger than Nepal, be it in ICC rankings or in terms of performance.
The Nepali team under the leadership of Rohit Kumar Poudel, the youngest captain of the tournament, has influential players like Kushal Bhurtel, Dipendra Singh Airee, Kushal Malla, Asif Seikh, Sompal Kami, Karan KC. Dipendra Singh Airee, who is in the top 10 in the ICC T20I All-Rounderranking, is the leading player of Nepal. Ari, who was absent in the last game due to injury, is returning to the team in Tuesday's game.
He has not played since picking up an ankle injury at St Vincent's in the West Indies two weeks ago. He was in the team in the practice match against USA. But due to rain, that match was canceled without even a ball being bowled. After his return to the team, Anil Sah may lose his place in the playing XI. Anil, who looked in good form, scored 24 runs off 16 balls in the practice match against Canada.
The opening problems curing team Nepal
However, recently Nepal's performance has not been good. In the practice match against Canada, Nepal was defeated by 63 runs. After getting a target of 184 runs, Nepal was bowled out for 120 runs. Another concern of Nepal in this situation is the opening batting. Kushal Bhurtel's performance in recent matches has been disappointing. In the ACC Premier Cup, he went wicketless in three consecutive matches. He could score only 32 runs in four matches of the home Twenty20 series with West Indies 'A'.
Bhurtel, who was unable to run in the practice matches played with the local team in St. Vincent and Houston, could only score 10 runs in the practice match of Candaviru. His opening pair Asif Shaikh has also managed to score the only half-century in the last 6 matches, while he has failed to score double figures in 4 matches. These two are the same pair, who made a grand 'debut' in international cricket by adding 116 runs for the first wicket in the triangular Twenty20 series against the Netherlands in April 2021. The opening partnership of Bhurtel and Asif, who had a great performance against the Netherlands, will determine whether Nepal registers another victory in the T20 World Cup after a decade.
Nepal vs Netherlands – How to watch live for free?
Here you can easily watch the live broadcast of the match between Nepal and the Netherlands, which will start at 9:15 pm according to Nepali time at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas, USA, through icc.tv.