*Official* WCL - Global Div 2, UAE 2011

[Magrat Garlick]

First innings of the day's games complete

Toss: Bermuda
Bermuda 242-7 (50 overs)
Jason Anderson 106*, L Cann 50, D Hemp 36
Hong Kong

UAE 284 (49.2 overs)
Shaiman Anwar 123, Amjad Ali 41
M Dai 4-56, H Areni 3-50
Papua New Guinea

Namibia 272-5 (50 overs)
C Williams 100, G Snyman 85
D Muhumuza 3-51
Uganda 5-1 (2 overs)

Batting teams pretty clear favourites from here, with possible exception of Bermuda. Really nice to see three centuries, they're pretty rare at this level.

Jason Anderson with a great knock in his debut tournament for Bermuda (he played U-19 in 1995 and then has played league cricket there I'd guess)

 

[Magrat Garlick]

UAE the only team with full points total after PNG hobbled to 170/9. Writing them off not too clever.

Uganda were bundled out for 67, batting still their weakest point (Kola Burger 5/25) and are now 0-2. Will be tough to avoid the drop now I think, they'll need to beat PNG and skittle UAE or Bermuda for peanuts.

and Hong Kong crashed to 173, all mostly bowled and lbw as the Bermudan bowling attack had a fairly decent day.

 

[jashan83]

Tom is rest day. On 11th we again have 3 matches

Apr 11th:
Match 07: Bermuda v Uganda, DSC Stadium, Will hope Uganda pulls of this one and win it
Match 08: UAE v Hong Kong, GCA 1, I will be supporting UAE and they look like the more stronger side
Match 09: Namibia v PNG, GCA 2 Will be supporting PNG, but will be a close match I guess


Pts look like this presently

UAE:- 4 Pts
Nam:-2 Pts
Ber:- 2 Pts
PNG:- 2 Pts
HK:- 2 Pts
Ugan:- 0 Pts

 

[laksh_01]

Uganda are disappointing.

 

[jashan83]

Uganda are disappointing.

They have lost a lot of players lately. The players have moved out to Canada. England or USA

 

[juro]

Looks like this is unfolding as another fascinating WCL tournament. Wish they came around more often...

 

[jashan83]

Looks like this is unfolding as another fascinating WCL tournament. Wish they came around more often...

Yes the WCL Divisions are becoming more and more competitive with each team at similar levels. We saw this in Div 3 and I am sure will happen in Div 2 too. It is the stupid ICC which is limiting these teams to go ahead

 

[jashan83]

PNG has been pathetic in this tournament. Today they got 92 All Out. I had great hopes from them, but they are disappointing me. In the end I hope PNG, Nam, HK & UAE end in top 4. Although I wanted Uganda in place of UAE but that looks highly unlikely.

PNG will be thrashed. I hope they give certain fight today

 

[Magrat Garlick]

PNG has been pathetic in this tournament. Today they got 92 All Out. I had great hopes from them, but they are disappointing me.

Takes some time before the schoolkids grow up.

Namibia 7/2 in return, too. Bermuda in control, has Uganda at just under 4 an over, while the UAE-HK match is interestingly poised as Khurram got a 7-ball duck and the hosts are 145/4.

 

[jashan83]

Namibia win the match in WI-BD style. Finish the match before the break itself.

Uganda 249 is a good total. I hope they give a fight and get their first win today

UAE 227/9 is ok. Will be interesting to see how HK will respond.

2 interesting matches on the fringe

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Good enough total to defend for Uganda today Seamers got early wickets and the batting spinners choked them. Part-time medium pacer Roger Mukasa, who kept wicket in the World Cup qualifying 2009, got to clean up the slog and ended with 4/21.

UAE squeaked home by 19 runs to go to 3-0, despite another good innings by high school boy Chapman, the only HK player to average more than 26 with the bat. Namibia 2-1 and the other four teams on 1-2 fight to avoid the drop.

 

[jashan83]

Like WCL Div 3, Div 2 also is turning out to be awesome. Any team can beat any other team. Many close encounters have been there. The points now are like this

UAE:-6
Nam:-4
HK:-2
Ber:-2
PNG:-2
Uga:-2

Now I hope Bermuda comes last. I do not want Ugan, PNG and Nam to be relegated and UAE cannot be relegated so second team should be HK. Lets see what happens

 

[Magrat Garlick]

UAE to 4-0 after Uganda were destroyed again.

UAE 88/2 def Uganda 86
Namibia 297/8 vs Bermuda
PNG 217/8 vs Hong Kong

I suspect PNG batted too slowly against Hong Kong - opening bowler Aizaz Khan ended with 10-4-20-0, and the mildly useless opening batsman Chris Kent made 59 off 113 balls (this after scoring 2 against Bermuda & UAE) - but their bowlers have taken wickets and could defend this against a team where only Chapman has been scoring runs.

No way Bermuda are hitting 300, in which case they'll be 1-3 with UAE still to play - likely to drop to division three. Loser of Uganda-PNG match on Thursday should join them unless Hong Kong collapse twice.

 

[juro]

HK PNG game looks interesting. Chapman fell for only 2. The only HK batsman to do any real damage was Najeeb Amar scoring 35 off 24 balls. The rest have all been tied down. HK are now rebuilding after falling to 70/4. They are now 105/4 requiring another 113 off 22.2 at 5.05. If they lose another wicket or two soon, I reckon they are gone...

 

[jashan83]

Uganda continued with pathetic performances. Their match finished in 51 overs.

PNG are back. They were 3rd time lucky on HK and finally avenged 2 defeats of Div 3.

Bermuda are about to loose to Namibia.

Clearly UAE and Namibia are cut above rest. I am hoping PNG and HK are the 2 teams that join them as HPP members.

 

[jashan83]

Points after Round 4 are

UAE:- 8
Nam:- 6
PNG:- 4
HK :- 2
Ber ;- 2
Uga:- 2

Final matches are
UAE V Ber
PNG V Uga
Nam V HK

I am assuming UAE will also pill this one

Hopefully PNG also wins

Then HK would have to defeat Nam to qualify. Just incase they lose then it is on NRR between Ber and HK and I guess HK have a better NRR, So they should hope Ber lose and if they lose they should do so in a close match

 

[laksh_01]

Interesting round of matches left. Namibia & UAE clearly look a league above rest. I think Kenya & Canada or Scotland should watch out for these two as their ODI status might be in danger. Especially Kenya. Mean while the avg age fore each team:

Bermuda: 28
Hong Kong: 24
Namibia: 25
PNG: 24
Uganda: 25
UAE: 30

UAE gotta get in some youngsters if they gotta sustain in this competition.

 

[laksh_01]

Very interesting last round of matches starts today:
Apr 14th:
Match 13: UAE v Bermuda, DSC Stadium
Match 14: Hong Kong v Namibia, GCA 1
Match 15: PNG v Uganda, GCA 2

Apr 15th:
Match 16: 5th Place Playoff - TBC v TBC, GCA 2
Match 17: 3rd Place Playoff - TBC v TBC, GCA 1
Match 18: Final - TBC v TBC, DSC Stadium

 

[jashan83]

Some interesting matches on offing here

PNG just made 186. Can the weak batting and strong bowling of PNG defend this low score

UAE have made 257. Bermuda have started strongly with 15/0 in 2 overs. Can the captain David hemp come strongly for this crucial match and save them from relegation

HK made a competitive score of 237. Will it be enough against the strong batting of Namibia

I hope PNG, UAE and HK win today ensuring these 3 are joined 4 Nam for HPP money

 

[jashan83]

Real cracker of matches today.

Uganda in a must win game as they had a pathetic RR. They had almost pulled it off, but a late flurry of wickets by PNG and Uganda lost by just 1 Run. Very Nice Match

HK looked as they were off to pull a surprise. Nam with 7 wickets down and a RR of 9 required from 6 overs. But then came Louis van der Westhuizen with 2 sixes and 2 fours and 36 of 20 balls turned the match and they won with 6 balls to spare

Bermuda started by a tight bowling and a late acceleration could not take UAE beyond 257 Runs. Bermuda started well chasing and playing with an average of run a ball and like many previous matches looked set to reach the target. But UAE had other plans and then regularly took wickets to defeat Bermuda by 44 Runs

Final Points table
UAE:- 10
Nam:- 8
PNG:- 6
HK :- 2
Ber :-2
Uga :-2

Finally UAE, Nam, PNG and HK have qualified as HPP members. Though I wanted Uganda in place of UAE as my wish list, Uganda were too pathetic in tournament and UAE too good