ICC T20 World Cup Qualifiers: Canada upset Ireland and top Group B

Adithya Sundar 19:58 23/10/2019
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  • Image - T20 World Cup/Twitter

    Canada delivered a massive upset, beating Ireland and winning their third game on the bounce at the T20 World Cup Qualifiers on Wednesday. The undefeated Canadians top Group B with six points while Ireland slipped to fourth spot after their second loss in four games.

    Opting to bat first, Canada rode on skipper Navneet Dhaliwal’s magnificent half-century. He was well supported by Nithish Kumar who scored his third consecutive fifty at this tournament. The duo scored at a brisk rate and kept the run-rate around eight per over. Canada eventually finished with 156 on the board.

    Ireland couldn’t string even one effective partnership together in the chase and lost wickets at regular intervals. Walking in at No8, Stuart Thompson kept the game alive until the final over but couldn’t quite get his team over the line.

    Canada have now won all of their last eight T20Is. Canada play Hong Kong next on Thursday while Ireland play Jersey on Friday.

    Canada 156/5 (Navneet Dhaliwal 69, Nithish Kumar 53) beat Ireland 146/7 (Stuart Thompson 28*; Saad Bin Zafar 2-31) by 10 runs

    Player of the Match: Nithish Kumar

    Image - ICC/Twitter

    Image – ICC/Twitter.

    Kenya chased down a target of 158 with minimal fuss as they saw out their game against Singapore with seven deliveries to spare.

    Openers Irfan Karim and Aman Gandhi added 110 runs for the first wicket in 14 overs and effectively took the game away from Singapore. Karim remained unbeaten to guide his team to victory.

    Earlier, opting to bat, Singapore started reasonably well thanks to a third wicket stand of 56 between Surendran Chandramohan and Tim David. The middle order of Aritra Dutta, Manpreet Singh and Navin Param chipped in with some useful contributions but Singapore slipped in the final two overs, losing five wickets for just ten runs.

    Left-arm pacer Lucas Oluoch was the best among the Kenyan bowlers as he finished with figures of three for 22 and didn’t concede a run off the final over.

    Singapore play their next game against Papua New Guinea on Friday and on the same day Kenya take on Namibia.

    Both Kenya and Singapore have four points in the league table after four matches.

    Kenya 159/3 (Irfan Karim 71*, Aman Gandhi 50) beat Singapore 157/9 (Surendran Chandramohan 40; Lucas Oluoch 3-22, Elijah Otieno 3-29) by seven wickets

    Player of the Match: Irfan Karim

    Aamir Kaleem’s superb spell dismantled Nigeria as they were bowled out for just 71 as Oman eased to victory. Bilal Khan too chipped in with three wickets.

    Jatinder Singh’s 22-ball-48 saw Oman canter to 66/2 in the powerplay and thus ensured an emphatic win with 13 overs and seven wickets to spare.

    With that win, Oman climb to second spot in Group B behind Canada, while Nigeria remain rooted to the bottom of the table with three loses in as many games.

    Nigeria will play the UAE next on Thursday and Oman’s next game will be against Canada on Friday.

    Oman 72 for 3 (Jatinder Singh 48; Sulaimon Runsewe 1-4) beat Nigeria 71 (Daniel Ajekun 16; Aamir Kaleem 4-14, Bilal Khan 3-7) by seven wickets

    Player of the Match: Aamir Kaleem

    Left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz finished with figures of 3-17 to justify his captain’s decision to ask Bermuda to bat first in Namibia’s six-wicket triumph. Six of the seven batsmen in the Bermuda top order were dismissed for single digits before Okera Bascome and Derrick Brangman resisted to make sure they played out the full quota of 20 overs.

    The chase was a quite straightforward affair with Namibia sealing the victory with 41 deliveries to spare. Opener Nikolaas Davis starred in the chase, top-scoring with 37 runs.

    Namibia face Kenya and Singapore in their remaining two matches and wins in both would guarantee their spot in the play-off stage.

    Namibia 111/4 (Nikolaas Davin 37, Stephan Baard 27) beat Bermuda 106/9 (Okera Bascome 37, Derrick Brangman 23*) by six wickets

    Player of the match: Bernard Scholtz

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