Nepal bowl in Women’s Asia Cup opener against UAE

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Nepal are playing the tournament for the first time since 2016

Esha Oza and Indu Barma are the captains of UAE and Nepal  •  SLC

Nepal chose to bowl vs UAE

The toss of the coin fell in Indu Barma‘s favour and Nepal chose to bowl in the opening match of the Women’s Asia Cup 2024 against UAE.

Nepal were returning to the competition for the first time since 2016, after finishing the ACC Women’s Premier Cup as semi-finalists. They picked an experienced top three – veteran Rubina Chhetry, who relinquished captaincy last year, to open with allrounder Sita Rana Magar and Barma at No. 3. Left-arm spinner Kritika Marasini, who topped the bowling charts in the Lalitpur Mayor Women’s Championship, the domestic competition in May, also found a place in the XI after missing their previous outing, the Premier Cup.

UAE were the winners of the Women’s Premier Cup and narrowly missed a place in the Women’s T20 World Cup in October, after losing to Sri Lanka in the semi-final of the qualifier in May. They went in with a settled line-up that had many multi-faceted players. The balance of their XI was similar to the one they fielded in the T20 World Cup Qualifier.

The conditions in Dambulla were windy with the broadcaster Isobel Joyce suggesting a left-right combination of batters could make it tough for bowlers.

Nepal: 1 Rubina Chhetry, 2 Sita Rana Magar, 3 Indu Barma (capt), 4 Kabita Kanwar, 5 Kabita Joshi 6 Puja Mahato, 7 Bindu Rawal, 8 Kajal Sreshtha (wk), 9 Kritika Marasini, 10 Samjhana Khadka, 11 Sabnam Rai

UAE: 1 Esha Oza (capt), 2 Theertha Satish (wk), 3 Rinitha Rajith, 4 Kavisha Egodage, 5 Samaira Dharnidharka 6 Khushi Sharma, 7 Lavanya Keny, 8 Vaishnave Mahesh, 9 Indhuja Nandakumar, 10 Heena Hotchandani, 11 Rithika Rajith

S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Sudarshanan7