Nepal national U-19 cricket team is all set to open their World Cup campaign against New Zealand at the Buffalo Park, East London in a ‘decisive’ match on Sunday.

Coach Jagat Tamata’s Nepal are looking to progress into the Super 6 stage but they face a strong challenge in their Group D, which also consists of full members Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“Our players are well-prepared and aiming to progress beyond the group stage,” Tamata had said before heading to South Africa.

“We face New Zealand in our opening match. It will be a decisive match because if we find our rhythm right from the first match, we will have chances of qualifying for the next round.”

The top three teams from each group will advance to the Super six stage, where the advancing 12 teams (three from each group) will be divided into two groups of six—meaning only one win could be enough to send Nepal to the next stage.

The young Rhinos are appearing at the World Cup for the first time in eight years. In their previous appearance in the 2016 edition in Bangladesh, Nepal had defeated New Zealand by 32 runs and Ireland by eight wickets to qualify for the quarter-finals alongside India from Group B. Nepal also defeated New Zealand in the plate final in the 2006 World Cup.

Nepal had locked horns with the test playing nation Pakistan in the 2002 World Cup in Australia, where Nepal defeated Pakistan by 30 runs but could not progress from the group stage due to net run rate despite winning two games.

The two sides last met in the 2023 ACC U-19 Asia Cup in December last year in the United Arab Emirates. Nepal lost to Pakistan by seven wickets. Captain Dev Khanal’s men also lost to Afghanistan (by 73 runs) and India (by ten wickets) to exit the group stage of the Asia Cup winless.

Nepal play Pakistan on Wednesday before wrapping up their group stage against the other South Asian team Afghanistan on Friday.

Skipper Khanal is hopeful they can avenge the Asia Cup loss against Afghanistan.

“We should have fought for victory against Afghanistan that day because Arjun Kumal had led the batting lineup scoring 91. Sadly, we lost.”

“But we have the confidence that we can defeat a team like Afghanistan,” Khanal added.

Nepal’s performance at the U-19 World Cup has so far been satisfactory, except for the 2012 edition in Australia where they failed to win a single match in the group stage. This was the only time Nepal returned home from a U-19 World Cup winless.

Gulsan Jha will be the another key strength of Nepal U-19 team in South Africa. Jha has already established himself as one of the key players in the senior cricket team, playing 24 one-day internationals and 14 T20Is. He has scored 740 runs and taken 21 wickets in ODIs. He was also part of the Nepal’s senior team squad that retained their ODI status and qualified for the T20 World Cup.

Although Jha failed to make his presence felt at the Asia Cup—he took four wickets though—he has shown signs of rejuvenation in South Africa. Jha picked three wickets in both Nepal’s warm-up victories against Scotland U-19 and Namibia U-19. He also took a wicket against the West Indies before rain washed out the warm-up game.

Tilak Bhandari, Aakash Chand and Kumal are the other breakout stars in the Nepal squad. Bhandari and Chand also took three wickets each during the warm-up matches. Kumal has marshalled several knocks across warm-up play and Asia Cup.