What a week or so it has been at the Cricket World Cup. There have been records in terms of the number of sixes hit in an international match by one batter, the most sixes hit in a CWC match and the most runs conceded by a bowler in a CWC match – all in one match.
There have been some edge of the seat thrillers, India and New Zealand prevailing by what turns out to be inches (possibly the top 2!!) against Afghanistan and West Indies. The pre-tournament favourites are wobbling (losing 2 consecutive matches at home for the first time since 2015) and whilst not quite requiring snookers, they do need to win their last 2 matches to be in the mix to qualify. The next week will determine who finishes in the final 4 to reach the semi-finals.
With most of the eyes of world’s cricket followers focused on this green and pleasant land, other world tournaments sometimes get overlooked. We have had the World T20 European qualifying tournament held in Guernsey – this featured the top 6 associate nations competing in 15 matches for a place in the world qualifier. The teams competing were Guernsey, Germany, Norway, Denmark and the favourites Jersey and Italy. There were some rain affected matches but in the end Jersey prevailed and topped the table going through the competition unbeaten including a 73 run victory over the Italians – here is the scorecard.
So where next – well its great news for both Italy and Jersey, as the top two teams qualify for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in United Arab Emirates from 11 October to 3 November 2019, where the seven qualifiers from regional finals will join Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Oman, Scotland and Zimbabwe, who missed out on qualifying for the event proper after finishing outside the top ten as on the cut-off date of 31 December 2018. The UAE have also confirmed their spot in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier as hosts of the event.
Six qualifiers from the UAE event will join Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies who have qualified already directly for the Men’s T20 World Cup after finishing in the top ten as on the cut-off date of 31 December 2018.
Another tournament has been a women’s T20 tournament in Rwanda featuring Uganda, Tanzania, the hosts Rwanda and Mali. Spare a thought for the Mali team – they started off poorly with scores of 6, 11 and 10 – the latter resulting in a 304 run defeat, in 20 0vers! The team did bowl 28 wides and 30 no balls, here is the scorecard. The team did improve with score of 30-9 in the next match before reverting to score 17 and 14 in their next two matches. Unsurprisingly Mali finished bottom of the table – conceding 885 runs and scoring 88 in the 6 matches. Here is the final table from that tournament.
Look out for more news and views from World Cricket in the next instalment – with the Maldives, Thailand and Malaysia playing in a tri-nation series.
Liam's Cricket Blog 