Nepali team, led by Coach Pubudu Dassanayake and Captain Paras Khadka, will play six T20 matches and two 50-over matches in Mumbai during the tour. The tam will reach Bhairahawa by road and take train to reach Mumbai on February 2.

Nepali team will take on Cricket Club of India (CCI) in a T20 match on February 4 and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust on February 5. Nepali team will lock horns with Nerul Gymkhana in a 50-over match on February 6 and Khadka’s boys will face DY Patil Club in a T20 match on February 7.

Islam Gymkhana will host Nepali team next morning in a 50-over match. On February 9 and 10, Nepal will get Police Gym Club and Dilip Vensarkar Cricket Academy respectively in T20 matches.

February 11 will be a rest day for the team while Nepali team will take on Thana District team in a T20 match on February 12 before returning to Kathmandu.

“I’m in touch with some Scottish and English players training in Pune, India. I’m expecting a T20 match against a combined team of those players on February 3. However, it is yet to be finalized,” said Coach Dassanayake.

Significance of the tour

TB Shah, the First Vice President of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), said that the Mumbai-tour is the first step taken by the association in the direction of giving match exposure to the players of national team.

“This is the first step taken by CAN to provide practice matches to our players on different ground, weather and crowd conditions as well as against better opponents,” said Shah.

For national team coach Dassanayake, the Mumbai-tour is an opportunity to find proper mixture of the national team.

“I’m not looking for big results in this tour. However, it could be a chance to build winning momentum and to identify our top five batsmen and top five bowlers,” said Dassanayake.

“Everybody in the team will get proper chance in the tour and I’ll try to find proper mixture of the team before the ICC World T20 Qualifiers,” he added.

Nepali skipper Khadka expects the tour to be a tough one. “I’m expecting tough opponents in the tour, which will expose our weaknesses,” said Khadka.

“After the tour we’ll have time to correct our weaknesses,” he added.

What is training plan after the tour?

According to Coach Dassanayake, he will start a closed camp training and fast bowling camp on parallel from February 16.

“We’ll spot our weaknesses during the tour and we’ll try to focus on our weaker areas in the closed camp training that will undergo for three weeks,” said Dassanayake.

“We are expecting ACC Development-Officer Rumesh Ratnayake to be here in Kathmandu by February 16 and the fast bowling camp will undergo side by side,” he added.

Dassanayake is also expecting at least two warm-up matches in the UAE. “We want to reach Dubai at least 3-4 days earlier of the tournament and have few warm-up matches,” he said.

According to skipper Paras Khadka, all the players will undergo fitness test before flying to Dubai.

What happened in the last 10 days?

The CAN announced 18-member squad for the Mumbai-tour on January 24 and it is the preliminary squad for the ICC World T20 Qualifiers.

After a round of fitness test and five practice matches, CAN has selected 18-member squad.

In the five practice matches, Pradeep Airee was on the top among the batsmen. Airee scored 138 runs in five matches facing altogether 130 balls. He remained unbeaten twice and scored with an average of 46.

Paresh Lohani was the second on the highest scorers’ list. He scored 134 runs in five matches facing altogether 152 balls with an average of 26.8.

Skipper Khadka scored 80 runs playing in four innings of the five practice matches. He is on the third position among the highest run getters but his average is 20 and his highest score is 25.

Among the bowlers, Basant Regmi remained on the top. He took eight wickets bowling 19.2 overs with the economy of 3.72. Binod Das took seven wickets bowling 14 overs with the economy of 5.92.

Rahul Vishwakarma claimed six wickets in the five practice matches. He bowled 14 overs during the practice matches with the economy of 6.35.

However, Das is not included in the team touring to Mumbai.

Team Combination

The team touring Mumbai includes Paresh Lohani but excludes Binod Das. This is the first time in almost 13 years that Das was not considered for a team he is qualified to play for while Lohani had pulled out his name from the team for the Pepsi World Cricket League Division 5 held in Kathmandu in February 2010 citing personal reasons. Lohani hadn’t featured in the national team ever since.

“We’ve explained Binod (Das) about his exclusion. Amrit (Bhattarai) is our opening bowler and Krishna Karki is also well-shaped bowler against middle order. As we picked Amrit and Krishna in the team, we looked for an aggressive and young fast bowler and Avinash Karn fit there,” said Dassanayake.

“Binod (Das) is still a good option for us for 50-over format,” he added.

The other players in the 18-member squad are Gyanendra Malla, Prithu Baskota, Subash Khakurel, Basanta Regmi, Binod Bhandari, Sharad Vesawkar, Sanjam Regmi, Pradeep Airee, Shakti Gauchan, Rahul Vishwakarma, Anil Mandal, Mehboob Alam and Chandra Saud.

(Ed: The write-up appeared in Republica national daily, on 31st January, 2012)

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LBSCC scored 97/9 in 20 overs and Nepal completed the victory with three balls and two wickets remaining.

For LBSCC, Sandeep Kaushik scored 39 off 38 balls while Saqib Alam scored 32 off 37 balls.

Shakti Gauchan and off-spinner Sanjam Regmi took two wickets each while Binod Das, Amrit Bhattarai and captain Paras Khadka grabbed a wicket each.

Gyanendra Malla topscored for Nepal with 34 off 44 balls while Sharad Vesawakar (20 off 30) and Dipendra Chaudhary (18 off 18) contributed for the victory.

Saqib took three wickets while Abhisekh Thakur took two wickets. Sandeep also got a wicket.

The LBSCC team consisted of Ranji Trophy players, according to team manager Naresh Shrestha.

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On Nov 15 Sunday, Nepal played two Twenty20 matches against DDCA XI and lost both but not without producing some good performances. Nepal lost the first match by 26 runs and second match by seven wickets.

Nepal won the toss of the first match and elected to field first. DDCA XI reached 164/5 in 20 overs. Ankur Jhulka scored 54 off 44 balls while Aditya Jain got 36 off 31, Joginder Singh 29 off 18 and Ranji player Yogesh Nagar got 18 off 24.

For Nepal, newly appointed captain Paras Khadka led from front taking two wickets for 23 runs while Binod Das and Basant Regmi each grabbed a wicket.

In reply, Gyanendra Malla scored a half-century to take Nepal to 138/4 in 20 overs. Apart from Gyanendra’s 51 off 42 balls, Paras remained unbeaten on 37 off 25 while Dipendra Chaudhary got 26 off 28 balls.

Paresh Lohani (1) and Mehboob Alam (12) went cheaply. For DDCA XI, Nagar, Darshan Kandiaya and Pakash Sikhra each took a wicket.

“The DDCA XI team was a strong team and we were praised for our good performance,” former captain Binod told Cricket Nepal in an email. The DDCA XI team consisted regular players of Delhi team.

However there were not much accolades for the second match as Nepal was restricted for 82/9 in 20 overs after electing to bat first. Apart from Paresh (26 runs of 50 balls) and Mehboob (17 off 18), not batsmen scored runs.

DDCA XI needed just 12.3 overs to win the match with Sawari Khan (41 runs off 35 deliveries) and Puneet Mehra (22 off 18) scoring good for the team.

Binod and Basant took a wicket each.

Nepal will play two more practice matches with the teams of DDCA before leaving to UAE for the event on November 20.

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Mehboob Alam emerged hero in the victory with an unbeaten knock of 70 runs as Nepal chased the Sri Lankan’s 128/8 in 17.4 overs.

Mehboob, who was later adjudged man of the match and received IRs 5,000, hit six fours and two sixes in his innings lasting 49 balls. He and Sharad Vesawkar ensured Nepal’s thumping victory after Paresh Lohani (4) was out early. Sharad scored 51 not out in 48 balls with three fours and a six.

Earlier, Sebastianite won the toss and elected to bat first. Riding on Chamath Perera’s 41 off 29 balls made with five fours and a six and Shanuka Pregith’s 24 off 22 deliveries, they scored 128/8 in allotted 20 overs.

Basant Regmi picked two wickets but went for 27 runs in his three overs. Captain Binod Das, Mehboob and Shakti Gauchan each took a wicket with Binod being the most economical giving away 14 runs in three overs.

Nepal fielded good effecting three run out – two of which were Raj Kumar Pradhan’s direct hit. “We played better than expected, but we need to improve on running between the wickets,” Nepal’s manager and first international captain Uttam Karmacharya said. “It’s an honor for us to participate in such a prestigious event.”

Nepal will meet Indian Airlines on Friday. VVS Laxman, Vijay Dhaiya, Gagandeep Singh and Ravneet Rikky are expected to play for the most prolific team of the event. “We will try to improve our performance in all three departments, because if we hope to beat Indian Airlines we need to take our game to next level,” Binod said.

The winner of the group consisting of three teams will qualify for the final while the second teams play the plate final. The other group consists of Cricket Association of Bengal, Air India and ONGC.

The event has some marquee names like Amit Mishra, Amit Bhandari, Gagan Khoda and Sarandeep Singh (ONGC); VVS Laxman, Vijay Dahiya, Gagandeep Singh and Ravneet Ricky (Indian Airlines); Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Naman Ojha, Neeraj Patel and Siddharth Dwivedi (Air India) and Laxmi Ratan Shukla (Cricket Association of Bengal).

CAN said the participation in the event would help in preparation for the World Cup Qualifying Series Division V. The tournament, with a prize money of IRs 225,000 will have a winner’s check of IRs 100,000 and concludes on Feb 10.

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