Bahrain will face an in-form Nepal team today in the second Group A match of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Men’s U19 Premier Cup to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The two teams got off to contrasting starts, with Bahrain losing 67 points to Saudi Arabia in their first match last Thursday, while Nepal recorded a resounding 274-point victory over Iran on the same day.
This means that Nepal currently leads the four teams with two points and is ahead of Saudi Arabia, who also have two points, due to their better Net Run Rate (NRR).
Bahrain, on the other hand, is in 3rd place due to empty points column and ahead of Iran due to better NRR.
Bahrain will be hoping their batting team can show more determination after their disappointing performance against Saudi Arabia, when they collapsed to 158 all out when they were chasing 226 to win 50 overs.
Nepal, on the other hand, will be hoping to continue where they left off on Thursday, when they took a hapless attack on Iran’s bowling, posting a total of 353 all out in just 40.1 overs and dismissing Iran casually. Dew. Just 79 by 31 overs.
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Bahraini batsman entering the net
Bahrain’s bowling was much better than their batting against Saudi Arabia (left-arm spinner Shashank Shukla hit 29 for 5 in 10 overs), so they will use nimble medium-pacers and smart players to contain the Nepali batting line-up. I would expect a squad of spinners. We expect our batters to perform well in this must-win game.
The 16 teams will be divided into groups of four teams and will compete for three spots in the 2023 ACC U19 Asia Cup to be held in Pakistan in December.
Group B of the Premier Cup will include Oman, Qatar, China and the United Arab Emirates.
Group C includes Thailand, Maldives, Kuwait and Singapore, and Group D includes Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia.
The two finalists will head to Pakistan along with the winner of the third place match.