oct 17 another upset today! scotland scored 160/5 against the west indies and got them all out for 118. wickets were spread around five bowlers, but markwatt took 3 for 12 off 4 overs. in the other game, zimbabwe scored 174/7 and ireland only managed 143/9 in reply. england had their final warm-up game, beating pakistan by 6 wickets in a 19 overs game. pakistan 160/8, england 163/4 off 14.4 overs. yorkshire's harry brook top scored with 45no off 24. stokes 36 off 18, sam curran 33no off 14. 5th wicket unbeaten partnership was 59 off 4.1 overs.
18th top two in group a played and netherlands beat namibia by 5 wickets with another run chase achieved in the final over. sri lanka got over their embarrassing opener by beating uea by 79 runs. uea's 73 wasn't much use. that said, a uea player, Karthik Meiyappan, took sri lanka's 3rd, 4th, and 5th wickets in a hat-trick and became the 5th to get a hat-trick in t20 world cup games. two group b games tomorrow, including ireland v scotland. not sure what the rules are, but it looks like two teams from each of these (first round) groups will get added to the two groups containing the rest of the teams.
19th in dvision b, ireland beat scotland by 6 wickets in the highest scoring game so far and the west indies beat zimbabwe with some ease. this means all four teams have won and lost a game and so the winners of friday's games will go through (assuming the games are not rained off). that's ireland v west indies and scotland v zimbabwe. in tomorrow's games (netherland v sri lanka and namibia v uae), if sri lanka pull themselves together, the likelihood is that three teams will end on 4 points. after that it'll be down to run rate or goal difference or fewest passes.
20th sri lanka did pull themelves together and stopped netherlands achieving a third successful run chase. sri lanka topped the table despite their surprise opening game defeat. uae also pulled themselves together, two matches too late, and set namibia 149 to win, namibia looked to be out of it at 69 for 7 and needing 80 off 7.2 overs. some 8th wicket violence left them needing 20 off two overs, but they only managed another 12 and lost by 7, so the netherlands finished second and carry on.
Ireland made it through to the next stage by beating the West Indies. Scotland lost to Zimbabwe and were eliminated.
21st today's two winners would proceed to the next bit. ireland beat the west indies quite soundly by 9 wickets, earning the latter a second defeat to british isles hopefuls. the windies only lost 6 wickets on their way to 146, hindered by gareth delaney's 3 for 16 off his 4 overs. ireland knocked off the runs with two and a half overs to spare, stirling top-scoring with 66no. scotland's disappointing 132 for 6 didn't look anything like enough and was 16 short of the lowest total defended so far. zimbabwe weren't far off at 56/3 after ten overs, and the acceleration thereafter made it look far too easy. they won by 5 wickets with 9 deliveries remaining.
Making hard work of it chasing 113 for the win, they'll do it comfortably but not without a few hiccups
22nd the final group games began today, with two group one games. new zealand started like a missile going off. by the time finn allen was out on the 4.1 over mark, they already had 56 and allen had scored 42 off 16, including 38 in boundaries. things only eased off slightly afterwards and the halfway score was 97/1. new zealand ended on 200/3, the biggest total so far, and one would imagine they'd be disappointed to only add 56 from the last 5 overs. devon conway top-scored with 92no. australia's reply was a disaster. the three overs southee and ferguson bowled before the halfway stage went for just 9 runs and australia were 62/4 at that stage, already needing 139 more off 10 overs. they were all out for 111 in just 17.1 overs, losing by 89 runs. perhaps oddly, england managed fewer boundaries than afghanistan. afghanistan batted first against england but it wasn't until the 16th over that the run rate went above 6 and it didn't stay there. sam curran took two wickets at the end of the 18th over, leaving an unfulfilled hat-trick possibility, but then took two wickets in four deliveries of the final over, making four wickets for no runs in six deliveries. his final figures were 3.4/0/10/5, making him the first england bowler to take 5 wickets in a t20 international. afghanistan had crashed from 82/3 to 112 all out off 19.4 overs, losing their last 5 wickets for the addition of 3 runs. england made rather hard work of their reply, malan particularly guilty in making 18 off a whole five overs. only liam livingstone, with 29 off 21, built much of an innings, but the efforts of the other batsmen had at least kept the score edging towards the target. the 15th over, with 14 runs taken, eased the worries of recent lost wickets and contained most of a partnership of 16 off 9 between livingstone and brook, who fell too soon afterwards. livingstone and moeen ali wrapped things up and england ended on 113/5 with 11 deliveries unused.
90k inside the ground and a cracking game, still not sure how Palistan managed to lose it but credit to Kholi.
23rd rather late, with apologies. ireland posted an inadequate 128/8 against sri lanka, now over their feeble opening defeat to namibia. sri lanka had no trouble and reached the target with 5 overs to spare and finished off with a six to end on 133/1. pakistan opened against india in a match described accurately above as mental. pakistan struggled to get going and after 10 overs were on only 60/2, by which time only one indian bowler had gone for more than five an over. the 12th over yielded 21 runs but the 14th brought just 2 runs but 2 wickets as well. the second half of the innings added 99, giving a respectable but not safe 159/8. india's reply started badly and they were 31/4 off 6.1 overs, with the required run rate nearing 10. after 10 overs, they were 45/4, 15 behind pakistan at that stage. kohli and pandya had steadied the ship, but 115 more was required. 20 came off the 12th over, and after the 15th india were on 100/4, 55 added in 5 overs, but still needing 60 more. overs 16 and 17 brought only 6 runs each, and the ask became 48 off three overs. in the 18th, three fours, no dot balls, and a wide added up to 17, so 31 needed off the last two overs. pakistan hopes began to rise as just three runs came off the first 4 deliveries of the 19th over, making it 28 needed off 8, and then kohli hit two sixes. final over: 16 runs needed. first ball pandya got an edge and was caught. he'd added 113 with kohli. five to go, 16 needed. a rule i didn't know about was that the batsmen couldn't cross on a catch, so in came karthik on strike. a single brought kohli back on strike, but it was now 15 off 4. kohli hit and they ran, but only 2. 13 off 3, so at least one six needed. at this point, image the bowler, pressure rising, 90,000 spectators making a racket.... kohli hit a six and the umpire called no-ball. seven more on the total. six needed off 3. bowler feeling the pressure... next came a wide! five off 3. next ball was a free-hit; kohli was bowled, but not out due to the free hit, and they ran 3 byes. was that a mistake, taking kohli off strike? but now there were two runs needed off 2 balls. karthik attempted a sweep, but failed and was stumped. kholi probably regretted that third bye. ashwin was next up. final ball... and it was another wide. the scores were level. india can't lose. final ball;. ashwin guided the ball into a safe place and they took a single and the match. kohli ended no 82no and, to nobody's surprise, man of the match.
