Nepal’s national cricket team whitewashed in Netherlands series

The men’s national cricket team of Nepal concluded the ICC Men’s World Cup League 2 tri-series on a disastrous note in the Netherlands recently.

Contrary to high expectations,they badly stumbled, losing all four matches to the Netherlands and Namibia.In other words they suffered an unexpected disappointing whitewash.

The reversal  has proved costly as the team’s One Day International(ODI) rankings took a hit, dropping to 18th  from 17th.The bigger concern is,it  has jeopardized their ODI status.

They have 24 points,from 32 matches, winning 11 and losing 29. They are sixth  in the table standings tied with Canada on points. 

However,a better run rate puts them ahead of Canada,which still  has four matches remaining to play.

Skipper Rohit Paudel led a squad packed  with highly experienced  and a few  promising young players. 

Nepal  had entered the Netherlands triangular  series, following superb performances in the  two  World Cup league 2 series held at home and  the 2026 Asian Games qualifier in Singapore .

 

From a position of non-contender they jumped into  contender  status. It was  a very important and crucial bounce back, renewing their chances of making it to the final round.

They had the much needed momentum on their side.The key was to maintain their winning performance in order to  further solidify their position in the table standings.

It was indispensable for them to preserve  and sustain a high degree of consistent performance,collectively and individually in every department of the game throughout the series.

However, as things panned out,they made a complete  hash of the series,falling  flat and  failing  to earn a single point.As a result, another great chance goes begging for them. 

Consequently, they are now under enormous pressure to make another comeback. 

Despite the setback, they still can make it to the championship if they turn the tide in their favor  in the Global  Qualifier play-offs. 

The  play-offs will  feature  a total of eight teams, 4 each from CWC League 2 and CWC Challenge League that  finish  in the bottom four in table standings.

It is another crucial opportunity for  them to  redeem themselves by coming  out trumps and qualifying  to the championship round.

Obviously,it will not be easy as  they have a big challenge on hand.They have to be  at their very best, perform consistently and  put in a solid  concerted effort and individual brilliance on all fronts of the game.

Moving forward the batting has to improve markedly  to put the team on the path to success.

The batters  must do everything needed to  turn things around when it comes to improving their batting performance.

Foremost they have to assess and evaluate their performances in the series. They must  be  committed to working on their shortcomings and making  batting corrections  accordingly. 

They have to  fully apply themselves,

 keeping  their focus,discipline, confidence,positivity and winning mindset intact.

In order  for Team Nepal to complete an outstanding comeback there is virtually no   room for inept performance and mediocrity at any point of the playoff  matches.Otherwise,their effort will go up in smoke.

Going back to the Netherlands  series, batting inconsistency and failure largely  contributed to Team Nepal’s debacle. 

The batting was fragile,brittle and highly  disappointing.Batting first the  top order batters struggled mightily failing to post competitive total.

Likewise, in the run chase,they faltered, falling well short of reaching the winning target.

The  batters  struggled to find their form,rhythm and timing.They were  mentally and technically error prone, throwing away  wickets cheaply time and time again.

The batting was distinctly subpar with the team scoring 157,157 and 168 runs in the three 50 over  matches. Only in one game they made 200  plus runs.

 

The closest Nepal  came  to  reaching the winning target  was against  Namibia before coming short by a few runs.

No batter reached the half century mark. Aasif Sheikh's knock of 45 was the highest individual score. With a  modest total of 113 runs  from  four  matches,he was the team’s  top run getter,followed by skipper Paudel’s meager 101 runs.They were the only two batters totaling 100 plus runs.

 

Keeping in mind  opener  Kushal Bhurtel who had scored back  to  back centuries   and all -rounder Dipendra Singh  Airee’s outstanding  consistent performance,they were expected  to  play a big part in the team’s success.  

The expectations did not materialize as both players struggled to find their form and had  a very poor  series. Bhurtel never  got going with the bat,while Airee put up a very average performance.

 

Having to defend  paltry totals due to batting  failure for the most part of the series,the bowlers  were under constant pressure.

 

Nonetheless, there is  plenty of room for bowlers to improve their performance. There is a need for them to work on their line,length,accuracy and consistency. They have to take their  game to the next level to  restrict opposition batters freely scoring runs and from posting a challenging total.

Star spinner Sandeep Lamichhane ‘s lackluster performance came as a big surprise  and  to some extent impacted the team's final outcome. He went wicketless and was dropped from one match. 

In contrast, experienced pacer  Karan KC. hogged the limelight for his incredible performance. 

He rounded off the series with  9 wickets to  become the team’s  leading wicket taker. Besides, as a tailender he was able to score important runs as well.

He became the second bowler and  first  pacer  to scalp 100 wickets in ODI for the team. Lamichanne was the first bowler to reach the milestone.

Denying opportunity to emerging  young debutant batter Arjun Kumal who  had made a name for himself in domestic cricket for his  superlative batting performance raised many eyebrows and questioned the credibility of team selectors despite constant failures of  regular batters.

 

Experienced wicket keeper Binod Bhandari with a relatively good batting average became a  spectator as he was  overlooked for all four matches as well.

This kind of   management  mistake is questionable and does  great harm to the team. Cricket Association of Nepal must look into it and ensure that it is not repeated in the future.