With just two wins away from clinching a berth in November’s ACC U-19 Asian Cup, Nepal coach Binod Das wants his side to believe on their own skills ahead of the ACC U-19 Eastern Region cricket tournament at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

A victory over familiar foes Malaysia will see Nepal enter the final where another win will qualify them for the U-19 Asia Cup which will be contested by five Test playing and two non-Test playing nations of the continent. But before that, Nepal should remain cautious against the Malaysians against whom they had struggled recently.

In two of the ICC U-19 World Cup Division 1 Qualifiers matches in Singapore last month, Nepal needed battly display against Malaysia with the bat losing five wickets while chasing target below 100 runs. Nepal’s struggle was already evident when they eked out one-wicket victory against Malaysia in their chase of 154 runs in the ACC U-19 Asia Cup in Sri Lanka.

Das, however, wants Nepal to leave the past results behind them and focus on their own game. “The main focus will be on our game. More than thinking about the opponents or past results, we will try to concentrate on our own skills,” said Das adding his side has put a lot of effort for the tournament.

“We have worked really hard on our skills and we look to perform it to the best of our ability. Our batting has looked good and same is case with our bowling and fielding departments. All of the three departments have to come together to take us through from this tournament,” added the coach.

Against the lowly teams of the region, Nepal batsmen have been hardly tested but the coach have seen his openers not converting good starts into big scores. But Das hinted at going with the same batting order that played in three games. Sandeep Sunar will open the innings with Aasif Sheikh with the former only able to mange one score beyond 30-run mark.

Nepali camp will be relieved by the way the No 3 batsman Anil Sah fared in the tournament. Sah made 91 runs in the Nepal’s 255-run victory over Thailand in the opening game.

Nepal skipper Dipendra Singh Airee will lead the middle order that will include Pranit Thapa Magar, Rohit Kumar Paudel and Pawan Sarraf.

Once again Nepal’s bowling attack will rely on the spin duo of Sandeep Lamichhane and Pawan Sarraf with both the bowlers impressing in the early games. Kishor Mahato is likely to be Das’ first choice as medium pace bowler as he has been providing Nepal early breakthroughs in the tournament.

Nepal had finished the Group ‘A’ on top with 100 percent winning record in the league stages, while Malaysia were beaten in Group ‘B’ by Hong Kong to finish runners-up. Hong Kong will meet Singapore in the other semi-final on Saturday.