ICC World T20 Qualifier, July 9-26

[dan08]

The Qualifier for the 2016 ICC World T20 starts tomorrow. It will be held in Ireland and Scotland.

Group A: Ireland, Nepal, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, USA, Jersey.
Group B: Afghanistan, UAE, Netherlands, Scotland, Canada, Kenya, Oman.

It's a strange format but there'll be 6 teams that qualify in the end.

I'm going for Ireland, PNG, Afghanistan, Netherlands, UAE and Scotland.
Hong Kong and Nepal will run them close but don't think they'll be as effective away from Asia.

[Aidan11]

Some of the games are live on Sky as well.

[Alviro Patterson]

Oman have pulled off a stunning 40 run victory over Afghanistan, Papa New Guinea beat Ireland by 2 wickets and Hong Kong on the foot front against Nepal, who are 31/4 off 9 overs.

[dan08]

Watched PNG today. Very impressive, can see why they are the only team unbeaten. Almost certainly going to make the World T20.

[dan08]

Horrendous chase from Ireland. Finish on 124/8 after Hong Kong scored 129/8.

Ireland will miss out on the automatic qualification spot now. Will have to go through the play-offs.

[dan08]

Scotland have qualified.

Crazy final day in Group B. Oman started top, ended up 4th. If Kenya won today, they would have finished top but instead they lost and came 5th so don't even make the play-offs.

[dan08]

Ireland also qualify. So both hosts are through. They certainly didn't do it the easy way though.

PNG bottled it. They only had to win 1 out of their last 2 games but lost both. Still have a chance in the play-offs.

Play-offs
Hong Kong v Afghanistan
Netherlands v Namibia

The winner of those two games qualify for the World T20. The losers have one final chance.

Loser of HK/Afg plays PNG.
Loser of Neth/Nam plays Oman.

All this means there will be at least one new team at the World T20 as one of Namibia or Oman are guaranteed to qualify.

[braveneutral]

No Ireland or Scotland though?

I am confused.

[braveneutral]

Oh wait. Less confused. I had glanced at an article and read it wrongness. There is some Ireland somewhere. But no Jersey.

[dan08]

No Ireland or Scotland though?

I am confused.

The play-offs are just to decide the remaining 4 places.

Ireland and Scotland come back later in the tournament. They play the winners of HK v Afg and Neth v Nam in the semi-finals.

[dan08]

Sensational chase from Hong Kong.

Needed 16 off the last over and got it on the last ball.

HK qualify for the World T20, Afghanistan have one final chance to join them when they play PNG.

[dan08]

Netherlands qualify. Another exciting match.

Namibia have a final chance when they play Oman.

[braveneutral]

Ireland and Scotland for the win.

[dan08]

Afghanistan qualify. PNG just miss out again.

One place left now - will either be Namibia or Oman.

[dan08]

Oman have done it! They're ranked 29th and in Division 5. Got to be one of the biggest shocks/achievements in cricket history.