Nepal’s third tri-series in the CWC League 2 cycle concluded on November 4, but their final match against Scotland at Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas, USA, was abandoned due to bad weather. As a result, Nepal and Scotland shared the points from that game, and both teams will now take a break for over six months in the three-year-long cycle.
In May 2025, Scotland will return to League 2 play when they visit the Netherlands with the United Arab Emirates. In the same month, they will also welcome the Dutch team and Nepal. Three of Nepal’s nine tri-series in the current cycle have now been finished. They are trying to gain momentum after a difficult start, but they have managed to earn some points.
Nepal lost all four of their matches against Namibia and the Netherlands in the first tri-series. They won one game and secured a No Result (NR) against Oman in the second series, earning three points. But they lost both of their meetings with Canada. Similar trends were seen in the third series in the USA, where Nepal lost both of their matches against the hosts but managed to win one against Scotland before the last game was canceled.
With six points from 12 games, Nepal is currently in second-to-last place in the CWC League 2 standings, only ahead of the United Arab Emirates, who have four points from nine games. The UAE, however, has the chance to surpass Nepal because they began their tri-series on November 5 against the Netherlands and Oman. The final match for the UAE is against Scotland, which was initially planned for March but was postponed because of a storm.
The top two teams in the League standings are Scotland and the United States. With four points from their two wins over Nepal, the USA leads with 16 points after 12 games. With 14 points from 11 games, Scotland is in third position, only behind the United States.
Given their victory in a pre-series T20I tri-series, Nepal was expected to do well against the USA, hence their performance was disappointing. However, the USA, who had also lost to Scotland in their two meetings, trounced them in both of their games. In both games, Scotland outscored the USA, winning by 71 runs on October 31 and 10 wickets on October 25.
In the case of the Nepal-USA matches, the USA won both by a margin of 37 runs on November 2 and three wickets on October 27. For Nepal, who were expecting to make up for their previous cycle defeats, these losses were especially important.
Nepal still has six tri-series left in the CWC League 2 cycle, which means they have 24 more games left to gain valuable points. As they did in the last League 2 cycle, Nepal needs to win these games to guarantee a spot in the 2027 World Cup qualifying tournament.
A lot will depend on how well the team performs in this upcoming tri-series in order to move on to the next stage and secure a spot in the World Cup qualifying tournament. Nepal still has a chance to improve its ranking and aim for a higher position in the League 2 rankings, even with their current struggles.
With a number of additional tri-series left, Nepal has plenty of opportunity to get more points even though their current position in the CWC League 2 is not ideal. To stay in the running for the 2027 World Cup qualifiers and move up the League 2 standings, the squad will need to play consistently in their remaining games.
The squad will need to recover from their recent setbacks and make the most of the remaining tri-series in order to guarantee a berth in the 2027 World Cup qualifiers, thus the next few months will be crucial.
