Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Shai and Samuels both have fifties.

Keep expecting a collapse top start, but still going well.

Windies should get home... 25 needed from 26 balls with 4 wickets remaining

Windies win by 4 wickets with 1 over to go

Hope Lewis and Samuels hit important half centuries.

WI and Zimbabwe have easily the best NRR, if it comes to that. Dunno if it comes down to head-to-head first though.

Im glad that Windies should get there...would be odd to have a world cup without them there..

Arthur Crabtree wrote:WI and Zimbabwe have easily the best NRR, if it comes to that. Dunno if it comes down to head-to-head first though.

I can't find that anywhere.

It's going to be an interesting final round. The winner of Scotland-West Indies will go through for certain, and Zimbabwe go through if they beat UAE regardless of other results.

For the winner of Afghanistan v Ireland to qualify, UAE must beat Zimbabwe (and Afghanistan must beat UAE). If that happens, the winner of the Afg/Ire match qualifies if West Indies beat Scotland. If West Indies lose to Scotland and UAE beat Zimbabwe, the final spot will go to the tiebreaker (NRR or head-to-head) between West Indies and the winner of Afg/Ire.

That said, the most likely result at this point is clearly a West Indies & Zimbabwe qualification - they probably should beat Scotland and UAE respectively.

It would have been interesting for the qualifiers to precede the competition. That is, in England running into the competition proper. It would at least have meant more exposure for the competing countries, and there is some value in following these emerging nations. That's if a 16 team world cup of evangelical aspiration must be ruled out.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:It would have been interesting for the qualifiers to precede the competition. That is, in England running into the competition proper. It would at least have meant more exposure for the competing countries, and there is some value in following these emerging nations. That's if a 16 team world cup of evangelical aspiration must be ruled out.

To my mind it's utterly insane that a so-called 'world' cup only includes 10 teams, and doesn't even include every team with full ODI status. What makes it even stupider is that a ten-team tournament will still drag on for a month and a half, because of this ridiculous desire in cricket tournaments to have everybody play everybody, and to make it virtually impossible for the bigger teams to be eliminated until the semi-final stage at the earliest. For most sports, the world cup is exciting because the best in the world are on show and every game is critical because after the first round, it's knockout all the way. In cricket, even fans like me get bored before the end, but we can't run the risk of India or England being eliminated early or having no India-Pakistan or Australia-England fixture. No siree. After all, it's not as if England and Australia have much opportunity to play each other when it's not a world cup

Dead rubber today. Though there's always some interest when Afg play. UAE batting in treacle, 26-3 off 13.

UAE 177 all out.

Anwar 64

Rashid 5-41
Zadran 3-45

My understanding is that the tiebreaker is. ...

Most wins
NRR
H2H

In that order.

Easy win for Afg. but too little and too late.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Dead rubber today. Though there's always some interest when Afg play. UAE batting in treacle, 26-3 off 13.

Not 'quite' a dead rubber, as Afghanistan needed a win to retain their mathematical possibility (albeit pretty slim chance) of qualification.

They do need a miracle by way of UAE beating Zimbabwe, but stranger things have happened in cricket.

I'm honestly torn on tonight's game. On the one hand, it would be strange indeed to have a world cup with no West Indies. But Scotland making the tournament at West Indies expense would be a great underdog achievement, and stick two fingers up to the ICC and their stupid decision to limit the numbers.

So I guess it's a case of may the best team win

Gayle and Hope out for ducks!