Nepal’s bid to directly qualify for the Cricket World Cup 2023 Qualifiers in Zimbabwe next year has gone haywire after Scotland overwhelmed them by eight wickets in the final match of the Namibia-Nepal-Scotland Tri Series of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 in Windhoek, Namibia on Thursday.

A third straight defeat of the Triangular series—followed by a no result against hosts Namibia last Friday—puts Nepal unchanged in the sixth position with just 18 points from 24 matches. The Rhinos have lost 14 and won eight.

Nepal’s headache with the bat continued on Thursday as well in another below-par performance which saw only captain Rohit Paudel reach a good figure at the United Cricket Club Ground.

Nepal failed to cross the 200-run mark in all four 50-over matches in the Namibia capital.

After Nepal elected to bat first, Paudel scored 47 runs off 57 balls but all other batters departed in embarrassment as Scotland bundled out Nepal for a paltry total of 119 in 35.3 overs.

Sompal Kami gave the second highest score for Nepal with 16.

Opener Arjun Saud once again failed to repay the faith the national team rested on him after he returned back for a nought in the third delivery of the first over, caught by Kyle Coetzer off Chris Sole.

Aasif Sheikh, who has made just 35 runs in the last four innings, was out for a duck, and former captain Gyanendra Malla for just 9—both trapped lbw by Brandon McMullen (2-21).

Paudel confronted the Scotland’s aggressive bowling for 25 overs but received no support from the other end, as Dipendra Singh Airee (14), Aarif Sheikh (6), Harishankhar Shah (1), and Gulsan Jha (5) all returned back the pavilion in horror.

Paudel was caught by Matthew Cross off Christopher McBride in the 25.1 overs.

Chris Greaves then bowled Kami and Mark Watt (2-36) removed Lalit Rajbanshi to summarise another dismal batting from Nepal.

In reply, Scotland chased down the easy target in just 17 overs.

Opener George Munsey hit 45 and McBride smashed 46 not out, and shared a 43-run stand for the second wicket to guide the Scots to a comfortable win.

Munsey’s opening partner contributed 16 and captain Richie Berrington added 12 not out to the cause.

Scotland are on top of the seven-team standings with 46 points from 32 matches and have confirmed their qualification to the Zimbabwe qualifiers with four matches in hand.

Namibia remain in pole position to qualify with 37 points from 30 matches. The United Arab Emirates are also in contention. They have 27 points from 26 matches.

Nepal’s chances of finishing on top three is unlikely, but can still look ahead to the qualifier playoffs—a repechage event to the Global Qualifier—that will be joined by the winner of Challenge League A and B. The top two teams from the playoff will keep their hopes of participating in the Cricket World Cup in 2023.

But, before that, Nepal face an uphill task ahead—retaining their One-Day International status by securing their position in the top five.

Paudel’s side now must win at least nine of their remaining twelve matches or lose the One-Day status—earned in 2018—which they hold very dear.