The Associates thread

[The Speaker]

I of course meant DAVY Jacobs, who has led Canada to victory.

Oman really struggling now, 4/115 after 35. HK similar, 6/130 after 39.

 

[The Speaker]

They've done it again. Oman needed ten an over and Namibia have still contrived to lose.

Oman and the USA now officially have ODI status - given the amount of talent flowing into both, especially with the amount of ICC assistance the latter has received, it's about time.

That leaves the remaining four fighting for the final two spots in the new division 2. Matches for tomorrow are USA vs Canada, HK vs Namibia and Oman vs PNG. Scenarios are as follows:

Namibia
Win: ODI status is guaranteed
Lose: ODI status unless they lose by an enormous margin AND Canada or PNG wins by a large margin

Hong Kong
Win: ODI status as long as Canada doesn't win by a bigger margin
Lose: ODI status as long as neither Canada or PNG win, or Canada only loses by a tiny margin compared to their own loss

Canada
Win: ODI status as long as HK loses and PNG doesn't win by an enormous amount
Lose: Relegated to division three unless HK loses by a very big margin

PNG
Win: ODI status as long as HK and Canada lose
Lose: Relegated to division three

 

[The Speaker]

Namibia are 1/130 after 27, both current batsmen have passed 50.

Canada are 2/107 after 27. With both current batsmen either past or close to 50.

PNG, meanwhile, are 5/60 after 22.

 

[The Speaker]

JP Kotze has turned into a berserker after a pretty nothing tournament, currently 140* off 79. Namibia have another 11 overs left, already 1/259.

Dhaliwal and Jacobs are batting at a decent clip for Canada too, 3/190 with 9 overs to go.

PNG have saved their innings with this partnership, Doriga has just hit his half century. 5/132 with 13 to go.

 

[Cleavy]

Namibia 3/396 (50 ov) vs Hong Kong
Canada 4/255 (50 ov) vs USA
PNG 8/221 (50 ov) vs Oman

 

[The Speaker]

PNG may have just turned things totally upside down. Oman all out for 76, Pokana 5/14. With HK unlikely to get near Namibia's total, Canada has to take some quick wickets and beat the US to overtake PNG.

 

[The Speaker]

If the USA lose now (it's 6/190), Canada can still get through.

If the USA lose but get a fair bit closer, Namibia and Oman will be in the playoff for top spot.

If the USA win, they'll be in the playoff against Oman.

 

[The Speaker]

Nine more runs with one wicket left - USA get that much and PNG are probably through, if they don't make it then Canada are probs through.

 

[The Speaker]

USA move past 211 off the third last ball! PNG are through.

 

[The Speaker]

Weird moment too - it felt like the US was playing for the 212 even though it meant nothing to them. Either they hate Canada, though PNG deserved it more or think that the latter are an easier team to beat.

 

[The Speaker]

The usual strange day at the end of a WCL tournament.

1st place playoff: Namibia are 2/97 after 28 against Oman
3rd place playoff: USA are 6/103 after 24 against PNG
5th place playoff: HK are 6/95 after 29 against Canada

 

[The Speaker]

Oman collapse again, Namibia are champions of World Cricket League Div 2 forever!

PNG and Canada both win by 5 wickets.

 

[The Speaker]

My team of the tournament:

Anshuman Rath (Hong Kong) - 290 runs, av. 58.00, S/R 80.33
Stephan Baard (Namibia) - 264 runs, av. 44.00, S/R 67.69
Steven Taylor (USA) - 177 runs, av. 35.40, S/R 72.83
Kinchit Shah (Hong Kong) - 163 runs, av. 27.16, S/R 61.50, 11 wickets, av. 18.63
Davy Jacobs (Canada) - 198 runs, av. 66.00, S/R 85.71
Suraj Kumar+ (Oman) - 149 runs, av. 37.25, S/R 68.34
JJ Smit (Namibia) - 221 runs, av. 55.25, S/R 118.81, 13 wickets, av. 14.53, E/R 4.02
Jan Frylinck (Namibia) - 14 wickets, av. 11.50, E/R 3.34
Fayyaz Butt (Oman) - 16 wickets, av. 13.43, E/R 4.21
Ali Khan (USA) - 17 wickets, av. 12.88, E/R 4.56
Saad Bin Zafar (Canada) - 11 wickets, av. 18.27, E/R 4.07

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

The batting numbers look disturbingly low for a team of the tournament. Or was the bowling that good across the board?

 

[The Speaker]

The batting numbers look disturbingly low for a team of the tournament. Or was the bowling that good across the board?

Pitches in Associate cricket are rarely batsman friendly, particularly when the WCL tournaments take place on the same pitches on multiple days in a row.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Yeah, I guess that's true. And they would mostly not have the money to put into them either.

 

[big_e]

Pitches in Associate cricket are rarely batsman friendly, particularly when the WCL tournaments take place on the same pitches on multiple days in a row.

Outfields aren't the standard you would expect at test level, either.

 

[The Speaker]

Outfields aren't the standard you would expect at test level, either.

Depends on the ground, but yeah the Namibian grounds were fairly bumpy.

 

[eth-dog]

Depends on the ground, but yeah the Namibian grounds were fairly bumpy.

Yeah I'd expect that the US, Canada, Netherlands would have fairly slick outfields.

 

[The Speaker]

Yeah I'd expect that the US, Canada, Netherlands would have fairly slick outfields.

It's a mixed bag. The VRA Ground in Amstelveen is great. VOC's Hazelaarweg is decent too. Fort Lauderdale's the only ground in the US, it's also good.

Canada's main international ground is King City, which is pretty ordinary.

 

[eth-dog]

It's a mixed bag. The VRA Ground in Amstelveen is great. VOC's Hazelaarweg is decent too. Fort Lauderdale's the only ground in the US, it's also good.

Canada's main international ground is King City, which is pretty ordinary.

You'd think the first world countries could get the outfields to the standard of premier cricket grounds in Australia though? Hell, some of the suburban outfields out here beat some of the FC outfields in the likes of Sri Lanka.

 

[The Speaker]

You'd think the first world countries could get the outfields to the standard of premier cricket grounds in Australia though? Hell, some of the suburban outfields out here beat some of the FC outfields in the likes of Sri Lanka.

The best Associate ground is Kinrara in Malaysia. Often the quality depends a lot more on how they're getting the income to build/maintain the ground.

 

[eth-dog]

The best Associate ground is Kinrara in Malaysia. Often the quality depends a lot more on how they're getting the income to build/maintain the ground.

Huh, fair enough. What European countries (other than the Dutch and Scots) are fairly high up in terms of Associate nations?

 

[The Speaker]

Huh, fair enough. What European countries (other than the Dutch and Scots) are fairly high up in terms of Associate nations?

The three European teams in the new Challenge League (ie. tier 3 of ODIs) are Denmark, Jersey and Italy. Jersey has a pretty excellent venue as well.

With the shrinking and end of WCL, everything below Challenge League is T20, for the most part.

 

[eth-dog]

The three European teams in the new Challenge League (ie. tier 3 of ODIs) are Denmark, Jersey and Italy. Jersey has a pretty excellent venue as well.

With the shrinking and end of WCL, everything below Challenge League is T20, for the most part.

The Danes would be interesting, from memory it's pretty popular for Aussie ex pats.