Nepal secured their place in next year’s T20 World Cup after they beat the UAE in the semi-finals of the men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier in Mulpani today (November 3).

Having been put into field by the UAE, Nepal restricted their opposition to 134-9 from their 20 overs. Kushal Malla and Sandeep Lachimane took five wickets between them, with Vriitya Aravind the only player to pass 30 for the UAE, making 64 off 51 balls. Nepal then chased the total down with 17 balls to spare and only two wickets down. Aasif Sheikh finished unbeaten on 64 and hit the winning runs off Muhammad Waseem.

The result not only means that Nepal will advance to the final of the competition, but that they are now sure of their place in the 2024 T20 World Cup to be hosted in the West Indies and USA. Both teams who qualify for the final of the Asia Qualifier will advance to the main tournament, with Oman securing victory against Bahrain in the other semi-final to join Nepal.

Both sides have outgunned Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, Hong Kong, Bahrain and Kuwait as the other teams in the event, and will play each other in the final on Sunday, November 5. Nepal are currently 15th in the ICC T20 team rankings while Oman are ranked 18th. They have become the 17th and 18th sides to qualify for the 2024 T20 World Cup, with two spots still available to be decided in the Africa qualifier.

The format of next year’s tournament will be different from the one used in 2022. Twenty teams will feature in the competition with the USA and West Indies gaining automatic qualification through being hosts. The top eight teams from the previous tournament (England, Pakistan, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa) have also qualified. Afghanistan and Bangladesh are also set to appear as the next-highest ranked side in the ICC team rankings as of November 14, 2022. The remaining eight spots have been decided by regional qualifier tournaments.

Ireland and Scotland qualified from the Europe Qualifier, while Papua New Guinea gained a place from the East-Asia Pacific Qualifier. Canada were the previous team to qualify before Nepal and Oman from the North America Qualifier.

The format of the 2024 tournament will be a group stage with four groups of five teams, each of whom play each other once. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super Eight, where teams will be split into two groups of four. Teams in each group will play each other once with the top two teams from each qualifying for the semi-finals.

Oman have appeared twice in men’s T20 World Cups, featuring in 2016 and 2021. Nepal’s only appearance came in 2014 where they won two of their three games, against Hong Kong and Afghanistan, but failed to progress on net run rate. The 2024 tournament will take place from June 4-30.

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