With hopes of retaining their One-Day International (ODI) status, Nepal will face a stern challenge from Namibia in the opening match of Triangular Series of the ICC World Cup League 2 at the TU cricket ground in Kirtipur on Tuesday.

Each team will play four matches in the series that also involves leaders Scotland, who are playing their last League 2 series and could be assured of League 2 silverware should they win two among four games. Namibia are third in the seven-team standings with 37 points from 30 games. All teams will play 36 games at the completion of the League 2 cycle.

Nepal are fifth, second from the bottom, with 18 points from 24 games and are under pressure to deliver results to save their ODI status. They at least require victory in nine games among 12 yet to play in three series to retain ODI status.

The teams finishing in top five positions will retain ODI status while the sides finishing in top three positions will qualify for World Cup Qualifiers. The bottom four will have to go through the playoffs for the Qualifiers.

The game will also be the first assignment of Nepal’s newly appointed head coach Montey Desai, who officially took over the Rhinos on February 6 and had been training the team for 10 days.

“This series is very important for us and the outcome will shape how the next two series will be. We need to win nine out of 12 games,” said Nepal captain Rohit Paudel. “Everyone is confident with the way we have prepared in the last 10 days under Montey sir.”

He also added that his side would have the advantage of home conditions. “There is team unity and everyone has the winning mindset. We need to execute our plans,” said Paudel.

Coach Desai said that everyone in the squad had made great efforts to ensure that the environment gets better in the team. Asked about Nepal’s consistently under-par performance with bat, the Indian coach said, “In my 10 days, I have seen the players have the ability but not the clarity about how to go with their roles and sometimes it could purely be the (over) expectations. At the moment we are trying to make them understand what reasonable expectations are.”

The coach went on, “It is all about understanding players very well, creating certain training approaches where they can understand their strength and grow little more, and now it has come down to how well they execute their strength, skill, and game plan.”

Nepal and Namibia have played four times in the League 2 cycle, twice each at Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, and Scotland. Namibia had defeated Nepal thrice while one game in Windhoek was rained off.

Namibia coach Pierre de Bruyn said that his team’s preparation was good and they enjoyed playing in different conditions of Nepal. His side are visiting Nepal for the second time after 2016 when they lost both matches against hosts in the World Cricket League Championships.

“There are still few players who visited Nepal in 2016 and they know what to expect here. Everyone talks a lot about conditions here. But we have played in different conditions in the last three years (League 2 cycle). It's all about how quickly you can adapt to those conditions and execute your plans,” said De Bruyn.

“It is always a tough battle against Nepal. We have seen them in Scotland and in Namibia as well. They have got the home advantage and everyone in the tournament gets home advantage and I suppose it's their turn.”

De Bruyn said that his side is aiming for a top two finish. “We have got six important games left,” he said. “We like to play our cricket and end up second, winning four among them.”