The opening day of action in the 2018 ICC World Cup Qualifiers saw plenty of see-saw action as teams tried to get the upper-hand in the first round of group matches in four grounds across Harare & Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.
Hosts’s Zimbabwe gave a perfect notification to all the teams as they thrashed Nepal in their opening group match. Afghanistan also were at the receiving end as Scotland went onto post a comfortable victory over the new Test entrants.
Netherlands and Papua New Guinea could not provide enough challenge to their opponents with the bat as they lost their opening group matches to Ireland and UAE respectively.
Brief Scores:
Zimbabwe 380/6 in 50 overs (Sikandar Raza 123, Brendon Taylor 100, Solomon Mire 52, Cephas Zhuwao 41, Basant Regmi 2/69, Sompal Kami 2/82) beat Nepal 264/8 in 50 overs (Sharad Vesawkar 52, Aarif Sheikh 50, Paras Khadka 40, Gyanendra Malla 32, Sikandar Raza 3/48, Brian Vitori 2/46, Graeme Cremer 1/37) by 116 runs
Ireland 268/7 in 50 overs (Andy Balbirnie 68, Niall O’Brien 49, William Porterfield 47, Ed Joyce 32, Tim van der Gugten 3/59, Roelof van der Merwe 1/32) beat Netherlands 149 all out in 32.2 overs (Target:243 from 41 overs – Tim van der Gugten 33, Scott Edwards 26, Tim Murtagh 3/28, Boyd Rankin 2/19, Barry McCarthy 2/28, Kevin O’Brien 2/28) by 93 runs (Duckworth-Lewis Method)
Afghanistan 255 all out in 49.4 overs (Mohammad Nabi 92, Najibullah Zadran 67, Mohammad Shahzad 30, Brad Wheal 3/36, Richie Berrington 3/42, Safyaan Sharif 2/46) lost to Scotland 256/3 in 47.2 overs (Calum MacLeod 157 n.o, Richie Berrington7 67, Mujeeb Zadran 2/47) by 7 wickets
United Arab Emirates 229 all out in 49.4 overs (Rohan Mustafa 95, Ashfaq Ahmed 50, Norman Vauua 4/39, Alie Nao 2/42) beat Papua New Guinea 113 all out in 25.5 overs (Target:170 from 29 overs – Charles Amini 24, Norman Vanua 20, Mohammad Naveed 5/28, Imran Haider 2/21, Rohan Mustafa 1/11, Amir Hayat 1/13) by 56 runs (Duckworth-Lewis Method)
A day highlighted by Scotland’s Calum MacLeod, whose 150+ knock against Afghanistan created new records on the day, where rain interrupted in two of the matched out of the total four. Action resumes on 06th Mar 2018 with Hong Kong and West Indies set to play their opening fixture in the tournament and the other 6 teams in the tournament (Scotland, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, UAE, Zimbabwe & Afghanistan) will be in action for their 2nd round of group games.
With Zimbabwe, Ireland, UAE & Scotland already on the board with their first wins, they will be looking to consolidate their positions to qualify for the Super Sixes.
