With a place in the semi-final at stake, Nepal take on their south Asian nemesis Afghanistan in the second Group ‘A’ match of the ACC U-19 Asia Cup in Savar, Bangladesh on Monday.

The match at the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan will carry a huge significance to both the teams in their bid to reach the semi-finals from the four-team pool. Nepal had a disastrous start after they crashed to a 171-run defeat at the hands of pre-tournament favourites India in the first match on Saturday.

Afghanistan, meanwhile, started off to a desired start sweeping aside the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by five wickets on Saturday. A victory for Nepal will put their one foot in the last four with minnows UAE coming up next in the league stage. Afghanistan, the defending champions, will virtually seal a place in the last four and throw Nepal out of last-four contention if they win on Monday.

Nepali bowlers had taken the hammering from India in the first match after the Test giants amassed 304-9 in 50 overs thanks of a century from Yasashvi Jaiswal. The chase initially looked on track for Nepal, who at one stage were 96-3, but they went through a terrible collapse losing their last seven wickets for just 37 runs.

Coach Binod Das wants his players to rectify Saturday’s mistakes and prove themselves one more time. “We need to realise the mistakes that we are making. We have been talking about it in all the team meetings and working on it in every practice sessions. It’s just that we need to do the same thing in matches too,” Das told the Post from Bangladesh.

“Afghanistan are the champions of last edition and to challenge them we need to be at our very best. We had a day to get our act together and used Sunday’s practice session to address the issues that troubled us against India,” added Das, who is the only coach to have registered a victory over India at any level for Nepal and guided the team into its maiden semi-finals.

In the last edition in Malaysia, Das’ side stunned Rahul Dravid-coached India to enter their first ever semi-final of U-19 Asia Cup. Nepal are once again in the threshold of repeating the history having already defeated current Afghanistan team in the recently held Quadrangular U-19 One Day Series in India. But a loss in third-place playoff of the same series would make them circumspect.

Nepal are playing Afghanistan for the 12th time at the U-19 level with the overall results going completely against them. Nepal have won only four times against the Afghans whose strong domestic structure have begun to produce adequate number of young cricketers. However, Nepal will carry the confidence from their recent victory over them in the Quadrangular Series to fancy a spot in the semi-finals.

Das is expected to make a few changes. He is likely to bring in Trit Raj Das in the top order in place of either Rabindra Jung Shahi or Ravi Kumar Shah. Spinner Surya Tamang could make way for allrounder Arun Airee.