Nepal will open their campaign in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2023 taking on hosts Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Sunday.

Nepal and Zimbabwe both have set their sights for spots in the ICC World Cup scheduled to take place from October 5 to November 19, in India. Only the top two sides in the 10-team tournament will earn spots for the World Cup.

The match between Zimbabwe and Nepal is scheduled to kick off at 12:45 NST. The home side will be eager to mark their comeback in the mega event which they missed out on, in 2019. The southern African team featured in every World Cup from 1983 to 2015, before missing out on qualification in the last edition.

Zimbabwe’s best performance came in 1999 and 2003 when they reached the Super Six stage on both occasions.

Unlike the hosts, Nepal have never qualified for a World Cup. They missed out of the Super Six stage in the 2018 Qualifiers played in Zimbabwe on net run rate. Nepal’s only appearance in the ICC mega event dates back to 2014 in the T20 World Cup, where they featured in the first round.

Zimbabwe and Nepal locked horns in their first match of the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers which saw the hosts register a 116-run win. But Nepal is headed to Zimbabwe in high spirits this time around.

The Rohit Paudel-led side pulled off miraculous victories in the ICC World Cup League 2, the tournament that paved Nepal’s way for a direct entry into the Qualifiers. The team won 11 of their last 12 One-Day International (ODI) games. Among the 14 ODI matches played in the year so far, Nepal clinched victories in 13 games. Zimbabwe has played six ODIs in the year, out of which they won three, lost two with the other game fetching no result.

Speaking with ICC media, Nepal captain Paudel said: “For the past couple of years we have been really working hard for this tournament and finally we have got this opportunity. We respect this opportunity and we want to make the most of it. We all are very excited to play against some good cricketing nations and are looking forward to the tournament.”

His Zimbabwe counterpart Craig Ervine of Zimbabwe expressed satisfaction with the team’s preparations. “Preparations have been excellent leading up to the tournament. There is some really exciting cricket coming up and exciting players to watch in Sikandar Raza, Blessing Muzarabani and Sean Williams. It’s going to be a great tournament.”

Nepal, drawn in Group ‘A’, will take on USA on June 20, West Indies, two days later, and the Netherlands in the last group stage match on June 24. Group ‘B’ consists of Ireland, Oman, Scotland, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The top three teams from each group will progress to the Super Six stage, where they will play three more matches against the sides qualifying from the other group. The finalists will progress to the World Cup.

Sri Lanka will face the UAE on June 19 in Bulawayo to kick off the battle in Group ‘B’.

Ireland, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe are the bottom five teams in the Cricket World Cup Super League.

Scotland, Oman and Nepal advanced as the three automatic qualifiers from the Cricket World Cup League 2, while the UAE and the US progressed as the top two teams from the World Cup Qualifier playoffs.