Big picture – Sri Lanka to go through in case of a washout
If the rain relents in Nisshin, Nepal will back themselves against a team that is on a losing streak. Sri Lanka were blanked 3-0 in England just ten days ago where they were unable to reach 150 even once while England scored at 12 an over or more in each of the games. Before that, they also lost the T20Is 2-1 in the Caribbean and had exited the T20 World Cup with four losses on the bounce, including one to Zimbabwe.
The last time Sri Lanka won a game was in June. The last time they scored over 150 was also in June. The last time they breached 200 was in February. It could be an engrossing contest.
Nepal WWWWW (last five completed games, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LLLLW
In the spotlight: Kushal Bhurtel and Niroshan Dickwella
Nepal will bank on their experience, especially the bowlers, in damp conditions.
Nepal (probable): 1 Kushal Bhurtel, 2 Aasif Sheikh (wk), 3 Sundeep Jora, 4 Kushal Malla, 5 Gulsan Jha, 6 Lokesh Bam, 7 Rohit Paudel, 8 Dipendra Singh Airee (capt), 9 Sandeep Lamichhane, 10 Lalit Rajbanshi, 11 Sompal Kami
Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 2 Lasith Croospulle, 3 Sahan Arachchige (capt), 4 Nuwanidu Fernando, 5 Ashen Bandara, 6 Chamika Karunaratne, 7 Tharindu Ratnayake, 8 Wanuja Sahan, 9 Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, 10 Nuwan Thushara, 11 Binura Fernando
Not a ball has been bowled in Nisshin since Saturday, when Nepal had raced to 149 for 4 in 15 overs against the hosts before rain washed the game out. There is, unfortunately, a lot of rain forecast for Tuesday too, at least until 6pm local time, with the match scheduled for a 9am local time start.
