ICC World Cricket League Division one – Day 1 review
World cricket league Division 1 started today in Amsterdam, Netherlands where six Associate members of ICC will play each other in Robin league format from 1st to 10th July to decide the best among them.
In match one played in Voorburg, Canada was facing energetic Afghans. Canada won the toss and elected to bat. Their start was not an impressive one with 2 players back to pavilion for mere 28 runs. Then came the skipper Bagai he started his innings with Patel and scored 88 runs at a run rate of 4.3 runs per over. After the fall of Patel, the skipper paced his innings with the coming batters. A 7th Wicket Partnership of 50 runs off 37 balls took the Canadian score to 257 runs. Bagai was the highest scorer with 88 runs.
The Afghans started their innings in positive style and scored at run rate of over 4 runs per over when their first wicket fell with the scoreboard on 48. After the first loss a 2nd wicket stand of 87 runs brought them back into the game. Their captain Mangal played a captains inning by scoring 70 runs off 58 balls. His 5thwicket stand of 39 runs with Muhammad was enough for their victory. Two consecutive fours in 49th over gave Afghans the victory with 6 wickets remaining. Mangal was awarded Man of the Man for his superb knock.
The second match, today, was played between Ireland and Kenya. Ireland started their title defence by easily beating Kenya in a one sided match at Rotterdam. Johnston, the Irish captain, won the toss and elected to field, Kenya started their innings in a slow style and only managed to score 29 runs in 9 overs. Their Captain Ouma was caught behind on a beautiful seaming ball by Johnston. Obanda, a promising young cricketer came to the crease and accelerated the pace of Kenyan innings by playing some marvellous strokes, but his partner was caught with the score at 59 in the 17th over. Obuya and Obanda put on a good partnership worth 44 runs until O’Brien took the catch of Obanda. After this wicket, the Kenyan side couldn’t adjust and their wickets fell at regular intervals. Kenyans couldn’t play their full allocated quota and were all for 163 runs in 45 overs. Only Obanda and Obouya offered some resistance to the Irish attack and added 70 runs in common. 7 of the Kenyans were caught with only 2 bolds and one run out.
In reply, the Irish started their innings in a defensive manner. At a score of 28 in 9th over their first batsman was caught. After the arrival of Cusack on the crease they never looked back and 2nd wicket partnership of 127 runs between Cusack and Stirling put them in the driving seat. The Irish team easily won the match in 40th over with 7 wickets remaining. Man of the Match was Cusack for his all-round performance where he scored 59 runs, took 2 wickets and a marvellous catch.
The third and final match on the opening day was played between the hosts Netherlands and Scotland. Netherlands won the toss and elected to bat first. The batting rate was slow in the first half of the innings. Thanks to the efforts of Cooper who scored 87 and the heroics of Zuiderent who scored 55 off 35 balls to take their side to a respectable total of 234 runs.
On the other hand, Scotland’s response was unimpressive as Mudassar Bukhari with his pace sent three opening batsmen to the pavilion when the Scottish were only on 42. Berrington and Iqbal gave the guests some hope in the middle order and brought their side back into the game. Drummond, captain of the Scottish side, came to rescue at the end of innings and thanks to the drop catch by de Grooth on the second last ball of the innings that helped the Scottish side to gain victory with just one ball remaining and no wicket left. Tom Copper for his 87 runs for Netherlands was awarded the Man of the match award.
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