KATHMANDU, Nov 28: Nepal will take on another Test-playing nation Sri Lanka in its second match in the ongoing ACC Women's Asia Cup T20 cricket tournament on Monday after going down against Pakistan in the last match.
Nepal faced a 9-wicket defeat to Pakistan in its first match played at the Asian Institute of Technology Ground, Bangkok on Saturday owing to poor bating. None of the Nepali batswomen except Captain Rubina Chhetri scored in double digits in the match against Pakistan. Indu Berma and Jyoti Pandey were the second highest scorers contributing just 8 runs in Nepal's total of 47 runs.
The Nepali team, which had flew to Bangkok with its eyes set on beating at least one Test-playing nation, will have to improve its batting to get positive result against Sri Lanka.
Monday's clash against Sri Lanka will be the second meeting between the South Asian nations. Nepal and Sri Lanka had vied in the group stage match in the last edition of the Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup held in 2012 in Guangzhou, China. Sri Lanka had won that match by 20 runs.
Seven players from the current squad including Nary Thapa, Indu Berma, Sarita Magar, Sita Rana Magar, Neera Rajopadhaya, Rubina Chhettri and Rashmi Sharma Chaulagain were in the squad that played against Sri Lanka in Guangzhou.
Sri Lanka, which lost its opening match against Pakistan by 8 wickets, will try to bounce back against Nepal. Despite putting up 113 runs target, it failed to prevent the loss against the runner-up of last edition Pakistan.
Nepal secured a place in the Asia Cup by the virtue of becoming the runner-up in the recently held ICC Women's World Cup Qualifying Series Asia Region. This is the second occasion Nepal is taking part in Asia's biggest women's cricket competition.
Nepal will vie against Bangladesh on November 29 and Thailand on December 1 while it will face India in its last group match on December 2. The top two teams from the group will vie for the title.
Women’s Asia Cup: Nepal takes on India today
