KATHMANDU, Nov 24: Nepali national women's cricket team has set sight on beating at least one of the Test-playing sides in the Women's Asia Cup 2016 T20 cricket tournament to be held from November 26 to December 4 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The team's head coach Raju Basnyat has said that his team's main target in the tournament is to beat at least one Test-playing nation. The Nepali team, which flew to Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday to take part in the T20 tournament, will face four Test-playing nations India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Host Thailand is another team participating in the six-team tournament besides Nepal.
“This is the biggest tournament our team is participating in so far and we have prepared well. Our primary target is to beat one of the Test-playing nations,” said head coach Basnyat.
Nepali team which returned home a month ago after participating in the ICC Women's World Cup Asia Qualifier has trained for about two weeks for the tournament. But head coach Basnyat, under whom Nepal became runner-up in the ICC qualifiers, was confident of doing well in the tournament to be held in round-robin format before the final clash between the top two teams.
Nepal had qualified for the Asia Cup after securing the runner-up berth in the Asia regional qualifiers held in Hong Kong.
Captain Rubina Chhettri also echoed similar views as her coach, expecting positive results from the tournament. “I am confident for good results in the Asia Cup as we performed well in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers,” said Chhettri before flying to Thailand.
Rubina also said that she was satisfied with the preparation despite training for few days.
“We prepared well despite short preparation time. We played practice matches against the boys' team which has made us confident,” added Chhettri.
Nepal will kick off the tournament facing Pakistan on November 26 while it will face Sri Lanka two days later. Similarly, Nepal will vie against Bangladesh on November 29 and Thailand on December 1. It will face India in its last group match on December 2. The top two teams from the group will vie for the title.
Along with the 15-member squad and head coach Raju Basnyat, Asmita Gurung and Raman Shiwakoti also left for Thailand as team official and technical analyst. National Sports Council Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista among others bade farewell to the team during a program organized at NSC premises on Wednesday.
Nepali Squad
Rubina Chhettri (Captain), Sita Rana Magar (Vice-captain), Indu Berma, Jyoti Pandey, Kajol Shrestha, Karuna Bhandari, Nery Thapa, Nira Rajopadhaya, Rashmi Sharma Chaulagain, Roshani Bohara, Sabnam Rai, Sangita Rai, Saraswati Kumari Chaudhary, Sarita Magar and Shova Ale.
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