Canada and Singapore finished on top of the points table in the opening round of Cricket World Cup Challenge League Group A series in Kuala Lumpur, having registered 4 wins out of 5 matches. Singapore recorded a hard-fought victory over Canada in their final group stage match to stay in the running along with them for the top spot in Group A, with two such round robin series still remaining to be played (one each in 2020 and 2021).
Qatar and Denmark occupy 3rd and 4th spot in the points table, having registered three and two wins respectively during the tournament. Host’s Malaysia and Vanuatu had a disappointing turnout, having won only a solitary game out of 5 to remain at the bottom of the points table. Still 10 matches to be played by all the 6 countries, so plenty to play for still. However, at this stage, Singapore and Canada are much better placed in the points log to claim the top spot in Group A and advance into 2022 CWC Qualifier Play-off alongside the winners of Challenge League Group B, the 1st round of which is scheduled to be held in Hong Kong in Dec 2019.
While Canada had three centurians in Navneet Dhaliwal, Srimantha Wijeyeratne and Nitish Kumar, it was Singapore’s Timothy David, who was the tournament top run-scorer with four half-centuries to his name. Singapore’s Aryaman Sunil was the highest wicket-taker in the tournament, followed by Vanuatu’s Patrick Matautaava and Qatar’s pair of Iqbal Hussain Chaudhary and Gayan Munaweera. Canada dominated in the team batting department, having scored 400+ against Malaysia and above 300+ scores against Qatar & Denmark.
The match between Vanuatu and Malaysia saw the List-A record of lowest total defence being broken as Vanuatu defended their total of only 65 runs by dismissing Malaysia for only 52 to win the game by 13 runs!!
Both Qatar and Denmark had few senior players unavailable for the tournament, however, the respective squads put up impressive individual and team performances to stay close behind the table-toppers, Singapore and Canada.
Brief Scores
4th Match: Canada 408/7 in 50 overs (Navneet Dhaliwal 140, Ravinderpal Singh 94, Rodrigo Thomas 62, Nitish Kumar 60, Suharril Fetri 3/82, Anwar Rahman 2/64, Dhivendran Mogan 1/49) beat Malaysia 202 all out in 46.3 overs (Ahmed Faiz 41, Virandeep Singh 35, Aminuddin Ramly 25, Suharril Fetri 21, Nitish Kumar 3/35, Romesh Eranga 2/19, Dilon Heyliger 2/63, Saad bin Zafar 1/27) by 206 runs
5th Match: Singapore 249/7 in 50 overs (Timothy David 97, Surendran Chandramohan 80, Arjun Mutreja 34, Delawar Khan 3/49, Oliver Hald 1/44) beat Denmark 213 all out in 50 overs (Anique Uddin 43, Zameer Khan 32, Jino Jojo 30, Jonas Henriksen 30, Aryaman Sunil 6/46, Navin Param 3/30, Vinoth Baskaran 1/39) by 36 runs
6th Match: Denmark 220/7 in 50 overs (Freddie Klokker 74, Zameer Khan 46, Jonas Henriksen 36, Patrick Matautaava 3/35, Simpson Obed 2/36, Apolinaire Stephen 1/22) beat Vanuatu 72 all out in 25.3 overs (Shane Dietz 29 n.o, Jino Jojo 4/29, Delawar Khan 3/15, Oliver Hald 1/12, Nicolaj Laegsgaard 1/13) by 148 runs
7th Match: Malaysia 153/7 in 50 overs (Nazril Rahman 52 n.o, Virandeep Singh 25, Suharril Fetri 24, Khurram Shahzad 2/16, Musawar Shah 2/20, Iqbal Hussain 2/33, Mohammed Nadeem 1/45) lost to Qatar 154/7 in 47.4 overs (Mohammed Rizlan 44 n.o, Dharmang Patel 37 n.o, Gayan Munaweera 28, Pavandeep Singh 2/14, Anwar Rahman 2/20, Virandeep Singh 1/27, Nazril Rahman 1/30) by 3 wickets
8th Match: Canada 379/4 in 50 overs (Nitish Kumar 129, Srimantha Wijeyeratne 112, Rodrigo Thomas 51, Ravinderpal Singh 38 n.o, Navneet Dhaliwal 38, Iqbal Hussain 3/88) beat Qatar 264 all out in 48.5 overs (Saqlain Arshad 97, Kamran Khan 68, Mohammed Rizlan 32, Nitish Kumar 5/72, Cecil Pervez 2/34, Saad bin Zafar 2/39) by 115 runs
9th Match: Singapore 217/7 in 50 overs (Timothy David 63, Aryaman Sunil 51 n.o, Rohan Rangarajan 45, Simpson Obed 2/25, Williamsing Nalisa 2/33, Patrick Matautaava 2/42) beat Vanuatu 175 all out in 46.2 overs (Nalin Nipiko 77, Ronald Tari 35, Aryaman Sunil 4/45, Amjad Mahboob 3/20, Vinoth Baskaran 2/21, Navin Param 1/39) by 42 runs
10th Match: Malaysia 201 all out in 48.1 overs (Virandeep Singh 73, Nazril Rahman 31, Shafiq Sharif 24, Vinoth Baskaran 3/32, Anantha Krishna 3/41, Rohan Rangarajan 2/31, Aryaman Sunil 1/20) lost to Singapore 205/6 in 45.1 overs (Timothy David 95 n.o, Navin Param 66, Suharril Fetri 3/43, Dhivendran Mogan 2/34) by 4 wickets
11th Match: Denmark 258/8 in 50 overs (Hamid Shah 93, Freddie Klokker 80, Zaheer Ibrahim 2/30, Owais Ahmed 1/32, Mohammed Nadeem 1/37) beat Qatar 198 all out in 43.4 overs (Mohammed Rizlan 63, Gayan Munaweera 23, Hamid Shah 3/37, Delawar Khan 2/25, Oliver Hald 2/30, Nicolaj Laegsgaard 2/31) by 60 runs
12th Match: Canada 302/8 in 50 overs (Srimantha Wijeyeratne 84, Ravinderpal Singh 43, Abraash Khan 42, Saad bin Zafar 34 n.o, Harsh Thaker 27, Oliver Hald 2/60, Nicolaj Laegsgaard 1/30, Jonas Henriksen 1/27) beat Denmark 172/9 in 33 overs (Zameer Khan 60, Hamid Shah 52, Anique Uddin 23 n.o, Saad bin Zafar 3/28, Nikhil Dutta 3/38, Romesh Eranga 2/28) by 48 runs (D/L Method)
13th Match: Vanuatu 65 all out in 25.1 overs (Nazril Rahman 4/14, Pavandeep Singh 4/16, Suharril Fetri 1/8, Dhivendran Mogan 1/24) beat Malaysia 52 all out in 21.4 overs (Aminuddin Ramly 25, Patrick Matautaava 5/19, Apolinaire Stephen 3/30, Jelany Chilia 1/3) by 13 runs
14th Match: Qatar 185 all out in 49.1 overs (Iqbal Hussain 39, Mohammed Rizlan 39, Kamran Khan 31, Apolinaire Stephen 3/32, Simpson Obed 3/45, Nalin Nipiko 2/37, Jelany Chilia 1/18) beat Vanuatu 171/9 in 44 overs (Shane Dietz 50, Joshua Rasu 32, Nalin Nipiko 28, Gayan Munaweera 4/52, Kamran Khan 2/4, Mohammed Nadeem 2/21, Iqbal Hussain 1/33) by 5 runs (D/L Method)
15th Match: Singapore 245 all out in 48.4 overs (Arjun Mutreja 72, Surendran Chandramohan 67, Timothy David 39, Abraash Khan 5/62, Cecil Pervez 2/23, Nikhil Dutta 2/45) beat Canada 191 all out in 34 overs (Nikhil Dutta 33, Abraash Khan 33, Srimantha Wijeyeratne 31, Timothy David 3/26, Anantha Krishna 2/36, Aryaman Sunil 1/15, Vinoth Baskaran 1/30) by 4 runs (D/L Method)
Did you know that 20 countries have ODI status and 104 countries have T20I status? Or that Scotland will host New Zealand in ODI cricket in 2020? Or, Thailand will play in 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia? Or, Japan and Nigeria will play in 2020 ICC U19 CWC in South Africa? Most people are missing out on the world of Associate Cricket. Are you one of them? Follow us at www.facebook.com/czarsportzauto or www.twitter.com/Emerging_93 to get all updates and news about the Global Associate Cricket World and how it works outside the Test playing circuit.
