Nepal will look to salvage pride in their final group-stage fixture against Scotland after crashing out of the Super 8 race following three consecutive defeats in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

The Rhinos’ elimination was confirmed after a nine-wicket defeat to the West Indies, who chased down Nepal’s 133/8 with ease. Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer guided the two-time champions home comfortably, exposing Nepal’s inability to defend modest totals.

Nepal’s campaign had begun with heartbreak. They pushed England to the brink before falling short by four runs in a last-over thriller—a match that showcased their ability to compete with Full Members but also highlighted finishing lapses.

Any momentum from that performance evaporated quickly when Nepal suffered their heaviest ever T20I defeat, against Italy by 10 wickets. The loss severely dented their net run rate and confidence, leaving them with no margin for error heading into the West Indies fixture.

Though, after seeing Italy put up a strong contest against England on Monday, Nepali fans would be relieved and believe that Italy were a good side. England defeated Italy by 24 runs while defending 203 runs.

Meanwhile, with three losses in a row, Nepal’s consultant coach Nic Pothas said the team’s biggest concern has been their failure to adapt quickly enough at the global level.

“There’s a lot of skill in the room, but we’re not learning fast enough as a group,” Pothas said ahead of the Scotland match. “At a World Cup, you don’t get away with not executing plans.”

“The England game was a classic example of executing plans,” Pothas added. “The Italy game…that was a classic example of not following plans.”

“So leading into the Scotland game, you know all we want to see guys do is compete but not make the same errors we are making repeatedly. That's the important part,” said Pothas.

Pothas has been with the Nepali team since Nepal toured Scotland in June last year. A former wicketkeeper-batsman, Pothas has formerly worked at different roles with the senior men’s teams of Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Bangladesh.

He pointed to exposure as a key gap, noting that many Nepali players are more accustomed to home conditions.

“For these players a lot of their cricket is played in Nepal where the wickets suit their style of play, and you can get away with not executing quite as much because of the standard of the cricket,” Pothas said. “But when you come to a World Cup, you don't get away with that kind of thing.”

Reiterating what Shai Hope said just before his pre-match press conference, Pothas stressed that Nepali players had more to learn.

“Still learnings for them…As long as we are playing cricket at this level, we gotta make sure we are learning,” Hope had said regarding Nepal after the West Indies handed them a nine-wicket defeat on Sunday.

And Pothas argued, “Even we guys as dinosaurs are learning every day. But we're expecting the players to learn quicker now. What makes that a little bit more difficult is exposure to various conditions and exposure to high level cricket.”

Against Scotland on Tuesday, the Nepali side will be looking for consolation to thousands of Nepali fans who have spent thousands of rupees to reach Mumbai and cheer for the Rhinos.

“You know we're a very energetic side, a very passionate side with a great following that have come to watch us play,” Pothas continued. “So we'd like to give that following something to remember this World Cup.”

Nepal will play Scotland at 7pm local time on Tuesday. But the Scottish side will not let Nepal get their consolation win so easily.

Speaking to journalists at the pre-match press conference on Monday, Scotland’s Tom Bruce, for whom it will be his first encounter against the Rhinos, said that he was excited to play in front of the passionate Nepali crowd.

“The support that they get, whether they're at home or away, is outstanding. So just looking forward to a really, really good contest tomorrow,” Bruce said. “Hopefully, we can put on a really good show for everyone that turns up and like I say play some exciting cricket I know both teams will want to finish on a high note for this World Cup.”

Bruce, who played for New Zealand for three years (2017-2020), added, “You see the success stories of Nepal and Italy in this tournament. You want to see more nations playing cricket and you want to see them playing against the best nations. So obviously that decision and how they go about that is far above my pay grade. But yeah, certainly when you look at the World Cup as a whole, it's exciting watching associate nations play against tier one nations, pushing them all the way.”