Pokhara Avengers batter Arjun Kumal has pledged that his side will fight for victory in each of its three remaining matches after the team slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat in the third season of the Nepal Premier League (NPL). The Avengers' latest loss, inflicted by Chitwan Rhinos, has left their playoff hopes hanging by a thread, with qualification now alive only in a mathematical sense. Speaking after the match, Kumal acknowledged the weight of the results but insisted the squad had not given up on finishing the campaign on a winning note, a message intended as much to steady the dressing room as to reassure supporters who have watched the season slip away.

Fourth straight defeat leaves Pokhara reeling

The defeat to Chitwan Rhinos was Pokhara's fourth in a row in the ongoing third edition of the NPL, a run of results that has effectively derailed what the franchise had hoped would be a competitive season. Four straight losses represent one of the poorest stretches a side can endure in a league campaign of this length, where momentum shifts quickly and confidence is a fragile commodity.

For the Avengers, the sequence has been damaging on two fronts. On the standings, the defeats have pushed qualification for the playoffs to the brink of elimination. On the field, the losing streak has tested the morale and cohesion of a squad that now has little left to play for beyond pride and its final position in the table.

That is the backdrop against which Kumal fronted up after the match. Rather than dwell on the loss to the Rhinos, the batter chose to frame the remainder of the season as an opportunity, pointing to the fixtures that remain rather than the ones that have already gone.

"We will try to win the remaining three games"

Kumal was clear about the team's intent in his post-match remarks. As he put it, the Avengers will try to win the remaining three games, and the aim is to end the tournament on a positive note despite the string of losses.

The wording of his commitment matters. Kumal did not claim that the playoffs were still a realistic target, a reflection of how sharply the defeat to Chitwan has constrained Pokhara's scenario. Instead, he focused on what the team can still control: the three matches left on its schedule and the manner in which the side approaches them.

His comments, reported in Nepali media including Rato Pati and Khabarhub, signal that the squad intends to compete through the final round of fixtures rather than allow the season to drift to a close. For a team in the middle of a four-match slide, that public commitment carries its own significance, as players and coaching staff alike come under scrutiny from fans following each successive defeat.

Playoffs alive only mathematically

The loss to Chitwan Rhinos has left Pokhara's playoff chances alive only mathematically. In practical terms, that means qualification is no longer in the Avengers' own hands: the side would need to win its remaining matches and rely on a combination of favorable results elsewhere for the numbers to fall its way.

Scenarios of this kind are familiar to any franchise that has stumbled through a league season. Once a team's path to qualification depends on other results, the odds shorten rapidly, and attention typically shifts from the standings to performance itself. Pokhara now finds itself in exactly that position, with the arithmetic as unforgiving as the recent run of form has been.

For Kumal and his teammates, the remaining fixtures therefore carry a different kind of weight. They cannot change the four defeats that have already been recorded, but they can influence how the season ultimately reads, and whether the Avengers close the third NPL edition with resilience or with a whimper.

What the remaining matches hold

Three matches remain in Pokhara's campaign, and the team's stated goal for those games is straightforward. Based on Kumal's post-match comments, the priorities for the closing stretch are:

  • Attempting to win all three of the remaining fixtures
  • Ending the third NPL season on a positive note despite the losing streak
  • Responding to four consecutive defeats with a stronger finish in the final round

A strong close would not rescue the Avengers' playoff hopes if the mathematics do not break their way, but it would soften the disappointment of a campaign that has slipped beyond their control. Even a single win in the remaining stretch would arrest the slide and give the squad something to build on, both in morale and in standing, heading into the future.

Kumal's vow, then, is less about promising a turnaround in the table and more about setting a standard for how his team finishes. Whether the Avengers can translate that resolve into results when they next take the field will determine whether his words are remembered as a rallying cry or merely as a footnote to a difficult season. What is certain is that, with the playoffs all but out of reach, the three matches ahead now represent the only arena in which Pokhara can answer its critics.