Nepal, Netherlands and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) will fight with each other tomorrow (29th July) in a single-day T20 Triangular Series.
MCC had invited Netherlands and newly added ODI nation, Nepal for a day T20 Triangular series. One of the Oldest Club of the world, MCC, was founded in 1787 and owning very historical lord’s cricket ground, largely known as ‘Home Of Cricket’, since 1814. Marylebone Cricket Club has announced very strong squad for the task, captained by Mahela Jayawardene. They added four of most experienced English players, Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Nick Compton and Jamea Foster. Ian Bell was second English player to cross 5000 ODI’s runs milestone after Paul Collingwood (5092). More horrible part is his current T20 form where he is averaging startling 96.25, this month in his 7 T20 outing. Aside from three youngsters from the MCC’s own Young Cricketers academy, leg-spinner Kashif Ali, former New Zealand youth international right-arm quick Ben Sears, and left-arm seamer Dominic Manthorpe, the remainder of Marylebone’s side is made up of current or former internationals.
Talking about Netherlands, late inclusion of Ryan Den Doeschate will give a much needed experience in their squad. Seelaar’s side has missed some of their key players due to their County commitment. Timm van der Gugten and Roelof van der Merwe, both are on their county duty and will miss this historical series in Lord’s. Netherlands have very memorable moment in Lord’s back in 2009 World T20, beating England in last-ball thriller.
Talking about Nepal, they are very fortune to get chance to play in Lord’s two times in period of 3 years. Last time they played in Lord’s back in 2016, when they recorded a 41-run-win in a one-off one-dayer. But they will face much tougher side this time. Nepal travelled to England in 19th July and involved in four practices matches before the series. They do have great practice matches with both bat and ball, barring T20 practice match against St Cross, where they rested their regular skipper Paras Khadka. They recorded 3 big-margined victory against Hampshire Hogs, East London XI and East London Sharks. Biggest positive part of practice matches was determination of their young batsmen in English condition. Dipendra Airee, Rohit Paudel, Aarif Sheikh and of course Anil Kumar Sah showed their calibre in their first ever outing to UK. They banked back their veteran wicket-keeper opening batsmen, Subash Khakurel but he didn’t shine well enough in all 3 practice matches, he played. With a great indication of form from Anil Sah, who is also capable of wearing the gloves behind the stump, Khakurel is very likely to make a way for Anil Sah tomorrow. Gyanendra Malla’s 75 in last practice match will surely boost his as well as Nepal’s confidence. If Rohit Kumar is selected, at age 15 years and 331 days he will become the second youngest player to ever play in an official T20 international, after Hong Kong’s Waqas Khan who was 72 days younger when he made his debut against Nepal in 2014 World T20. Nepals’s young sensation will make a T20I debut from his nation tomorrow, but it’ll not be his debut in this format as he already made this in the recent Hurricane Relief game for the ICC Rest of The World XI vs the West Indies. Given where that game was played, Sandeep will have the unique honour of making his international debut for two separate sides both at Lord’s !
Marylebone’s side is far better than Nepal and Netherlands on paper but it’s sure that Nepal and Netherlands will give tough time to MCC. Surely, they aren’t there to take part. They are there to play.
Nepal: Paras Khadka (c), Gyanendra Malla, Anil Kumar Sah, Subash Khakurel, Rohit Kumar Paudel, Sharad Vesawkar, Dipendra Singh Airee, Arif Sheikh, Sompal Kami, Basant Regmi, Shakti Gauchan, Lalit Bhandari, Karan Khatri-Chhetri, Lalit Rajbanshi, Sandeep Lamichhane.
Netherlands: Pieter Seelaar (c), Tobias Visee, Tonny Staal, Max O’Dowd, Wesley Barresi, Ryan ten Doeschate, Michael Rippon, Scott Edwards, Hidde Overdijk, Bas de Leede, Shane Snater, Clayton Floyd, Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren.
MCC: Mahela Jayawardene (c) Nick Compton, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Dylan Budge, Peter Moor, James Foster, Mark Watt, Kashif Ali, Ben Sears, Dominic Manthorpe, Ali Evans.
Feature Image © Crazycowevents.com
