One win away from Asia Cup, hosts Nepal and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will play in the final of ACC Premier Cup at the Tribhuvan University cricket ground in Kirtipur on Monday.

The outcome will open the door for both sides to rub shoulders against the giants of world cricket as the champions will join India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup final scheduled for September in Pakistan. The six-team Asia Cup comprises Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in the other group.

Nepal had entered into the semi-final maintaining their unbeaten streak and finishing on top of Group ‘A’ winning three of its four matches after their fixture against Saudi Arabia was washed out. In the semi-final against Kuwait played on Saturday, an outcome was not possible due to rain and Nepal were declared winners due to their better group stage record over Kuwait, who had made it to the semi-final as Group ‘B’ runners up.

UAE also secured the top finish in Group ‘B’, winning three of its four matches and beat Oman by two runs by D/L method on Saturday to set up a clash against the home team.

“The final is very important and it is a really big opportunity for us to play against India and Pakistan,” Nepal’s captain Rohit Paudel said after they entered the final on Saturday.

“Not only for us, the game carries equal significance for the UAE as well. Both sides will be under immense pressure. The team that handles the pressure better is likely to have an edge in the final,” said Paudel, adding that the UAE opener cum captain Muhammad Waseem could be a threat to them. “Waseem is one of the key players of the UAE team and gives a quick start to the team. If we manage to get rid of him early, we can put them under pressure.”

Nepal are going through a rich vein of form having won 11 of their last 12 ICC World Cup League 2 Games from February 14 to March 16. The only game Nepal lost was against the UAE when they went down by 68 runs on March 2 at DSC.

Before that, the two sides had played a three-match bilateral One-Day International Series at the TU ground in November last year. While the visitors won the opening game, Nepal won the next two matches to clinch the series 2-1.

Considering the performance of the past couple of months, Nepal holds an edge over the visitors. However, the UAE have been tough opponents to Nepal and could prove to be a major challenge.

The weather forecast, however, has put the game in doubt as the Meteorological Forecasting Division has predicted that there could be rains throughout the country on Monday and Tuesday.

If the rainfall makes playing conditions impossible, the game will be pushed to the reserve day on Tuesday. If the game still cannot take place on a reserve day or the game is tied or has no result, the teams will play up to two super overs.

If there is still no result, the team that is seeded higher in the ICC ranking will qualify. Such a situation will mean Nepal automatically qualifying for the Asia Cup by virtue of a superior ranking as they are ranked 14th and the UAE is 19th in the ICC men’s ODI rankings.