Scotland held off Nepal by two runs on Tuesday at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, squeezing out a tense win in a Nepal vs Scotland ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 match that ended with the home side just short. The game began at 9:30 AM local time, 9:15 AM IST, and Scotland left with a result that sharpened the stakes in the tri-series, which also included the United States.
The margin was tiny, but the importance was not. Scotland arrived in second place in the League 2 standings with 34 points from 28 games, while Nepal came in seventh among eight teams with 18 points from 24 matches. After this cycle, the top four teams go directly to the World Cup Qualifiers, and lower finishers risk losing ODI status. For Nepal, who had won four of their eight home matches in 2024, the loss was a blow at a ground where they have often been hard to beat.
That home record has long been part of Nepal’s argument for belief. During the 2019 to 2023 cycle, they won ten of 12 matches in Kathmandu and beat Scotland there in 2023. They had also won their last two games against Oman and the UAE before this match, and they came into Tuesday having already beaten Scotland A in both warm-up games. Scotland, though, had a clear answer of its own: it had already beaten Nepal in Dallas and Dundee during the current League 2 campaign, and the Dundee victory was a high-scoring one in which Richie Berrington made 102 and Michael Leask hit 96 from 62 deliveries as Nepal were bowled out for 321 chasing 324.
Tuesday’s match again showed how little separated the sides. Nepal’s XI featured Binod Bhandari, Aasif Sheikh, Arjun Kumal, Rohit Paudel, Dipendra Singh Airee, Aarif Sheikh, Gulsan Jha, Karan KC, Nandan Yadav, Sandeep Lamichhane and Lalit Rajbanshi. Scotland’s projected lineup included George Munsey, Finlay McCreath, Brandon McMullen, Michael English, Berrington, Matthew Cross, Leask, Mark Watt, Brad Currie, Jack Jarvis and Oliver Davidson. The tourists also had extra experience behind the scenes, with former Pakistan captain Azhar Ali working as a consultant. Azhar Ali said he was excited to work with a talented Scotland side. His record as a player was formidable: 97 Tests, 53 ODIs and more than 7,000 Test runs.
That blend of pressure and familiarity is what made this result land so heavily. Nepal knew the ground and the numbers on their side, and Scotland knew how to win this matchup. In the end, the visitors found a way to close out another tight one, and Nepal now faces the harder question: whether its strong home reputation is enough when the table is turning against it.
