Nepal Tri-Nation T20I Series

 

Despite a poor lead in to the tournament, Nepal are dominating the tri-series versus Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. They have won both of their opening games; by 15 runs vs Papua New Guinea and by 6 wickets vs Malaysia today. Malaysia pulled off a shock win against Papua New Guinea yesterday to give them second place.

Nepal's Aasif Sheikh has scored 100 runs across his two games however his 57 against Malaysia today is only the second highest score of the tournament. Malaysia's Virandeep Singh takes that honour for his 59* against Papua New Guinea yesterday.

In terms of bowling honours it is another Malaysian who has bragging rights. Sharvin Muniandy's 4-32 yesterday is the score to beat 4 games. 

Papua New Guinea series victory over Nepal

 

Papua New Guinea are pulling off something of a coup as they have now twice beaten Nepal over the last 48 hours. On the eve of a tri-series tournament between the pair of them and Malaysia, PNG will have a world of confidence as they have dominated in terms of results whilst not necessarily having the best performers om the day.

Dipendra Singh Airee was the highest run scorer today with 105 whilst Rohit Paudel went bigger with 126 yesterday - however it wasn't enough as the bottom ranked ODI team produced the goods. 

Zimbabwe Domestic Twenty20 Competition Update

 

The Mid West Rhinos have started this competion at a gallop with a 6 wicket win against Matabeleland yesterday and a 5 wicket win against the Southern Rocks today. 

Nobody has been able to string together two good performances with bat nor ball. Milton Shumba got 67* in their loss to the Rhinos yesterday but only managed 7 yesterday whilst Mashonaland's Brad Evans got a fivefer today but went wicketless yesterday. 

Tomorrow is an off day, with games resuming on Sunday. 

National Super Provincial 4-Day Tournament Update

 All Jaffna needed to do was bat the day and with all their batsmen available it seemed on the cards.....however their house of cards tumbled. Janith Liyanage put up a valiant spell of 72 runs but was very much let down by those around him, especially two ducks from the third and fourth wicket. With just 224 om the board, Galle needed 38 runs to win which they achieved in 7 overs.

In Pallekele, Dambulla held on for a draw thanks to a century from Nimesha Gunasinghe. Kandy are probably guilty of batting for too long as they declared on 278; a lead of 508. Dambulla lasted out the 50 overs they were asked to bat in something of a damp squib of a final day.

Kamindu Mendis continued his fine tournament this week, adding 94 and 88 to his total runs. With 649 he has 173 more than anyone else. Malinda Pushpakumara's 12 wicket match haul sees him top the wicket takers standings.

Matches continue on Thursday. 

National Super Provincial 4-Day Tournament Update

 Twin centuries from the Galle openers set them up for a declaration on the penultimate game of this match which (shock of shocks) looks likely to be a draw. Sangeeth Cooray added to his scire of 58* overnight to finish on 160. The opening stand for Galle was worth 208. It is genuinely impressive that a team can post 444 with 5 players registering single figure scores. Galle declared with 12 overs left in the day which Jaffna navigated for the loss of no wicket.

Over in Pallekele it continues to be a bowlers game. Dambulla have a 364 run deficit going into the final day after Ashian Daniel got a fivefer to get them all out for 216. Kandy are on 134-3 overnight and will look to declare early tomorrow to give them a chance of the win. 

ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League 2 Update

 

The United Arab Emirates are continuing their strong home leg of the World Cup League 2 by winning their fourth game out of 6 today against Nepal. This has come after they registered a 7 wicket win against Papua New Guinea on Tuesday. They are now second on the table; 18 points behind Oman (who have played 13 more games than them) and 2 points above Scotland (who have played 3 fewer.)

Basil Hameed has been in exceptionally good form after getting two fourfers on the trot, taking him up to joint 9th in the tournament with 20.

Nepal beat Papua New Guinea in the other non-UAE game. 

National Super Provincial 4-Day Tournament Update

 Rain truncated the match between Jaffna and Galle. Galle polished off Jafna's first innings after the last wickets put on a creditable 59 runs. Ever since then Galle have had the run of play. When they went off for rain after 30.4 overs they were 113 for the losnof no wickey. Sangeeth Cooray is 58* off 90 balls.

Over in the other game, Malinda Pushpakumara did for Dambulla what he has been doing for the last decade and a half; recording eye-watering figures. The man, who was once seen as a Herath replacement, got 7-120 today as Kandy were all out for 446. He becomes the 6th bowler to cross the 800 wicket mark in the 82 year history of Sri Lankan First Class cricket. His batsmen let him down rather in theory first dig; they went to stumps on 77-3. 

Jaffna v Galle Day One Update

 Day One of Jaffna v Galle has been that rare of things; a bowler friendly day.

Galle won the toss and elected to field and were maybe thinking they would regret it at 62-2 and 110-3. However were 218-9 at close of play. Destructor in chief was Suminda Lakshan. He has totalled 2 wickets across the first two fixtures but got 4 today in a mere 16 overs.  

ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League 2 Round Up

 

First off Namibia beat Oman again, the second time they've challenged the table toppers in this leg of the tournament. This was despite another decent performance from Shoaib Khan who averages 53.8 across this leg of the tournament.

That match marks the end of thus house of the tournament with the next stage starting .....tomorrow.....in the same venue....and one of the same teams. The UAE wave goodbye to Namibia and Oman and bid a warm welcome to Nepal and Papua New Guinea. All very odd. 

National Super Provincial 4-Day Tournament Update

 This game ended with the tiniest little slither-ette of a positive result.

After Galle were all out for 513 within 4 overs of the morning, Dambulla raced to 300 runs in 70 overs before declaring with 20 overs left in the day. Galle got to stumps for the loss of two wickets before captains shook hands on the draw.

The final big score of the match was for Pawantha Weerasinghe who got 76 runs in 95 balls. The draw keeps dambulla bottom and Galle in third.

Colombo beat Kandy by 6 wickets to extend their lead at the top of the table. Kandy's Kamindu Mendis got his 4th century of the tournament in this game; taking him to 467 for the tournament. Colombo's Prabath Jayasuriya is the highest wicket taker with 15 @ 28.26.

Matches continue on Thursday. 

Dambulla v Galle Day Three Update

 As has been the case in all but one of the fixtures in this competition so far this year, this will be another high scoring draw.

Galle batted throughout Day 4; first giving themselves the lead before going to stumps 81 runs to the good a run shirt of their 500.

Hashan Dumindu became the 4th century maker in the match and the 15th across the 5 games on the competition. His score of 167 is the highest score in the game and the second highest of the tournament thus far. 

ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League 2 Round Up

 

Dambulla vs Galle Day Two Update

 The runs continue to pile on in Dambulla, however, despite such an impressive start, the home team lost their final five wickets for just 86 runs. The fact that those 86 runs were added to an overnight total of 332 will prove some solace.

Galle have taken up the tun scoring mantle in their first innings though. Just as his opposition captain did yesterday, Galle's Dhananjaya Lakshan is cashing in. He ended the day on 93 with his second First Class century seemingly looming large on the horizon. 

Dambulla v Galle - Day One Update

 The National Super Provincial 4-Day Tournament is only in its 3rd round of fixtures and we've already seen three scores of 500+. The average innings score is 365 - and that includes three declared innings.

This means that Dambulla's opening day score of 332-5 against Galle is very much on trend for a run-friendly competition. They save been valiantly led by captain Minod Bhanuka who rests on 140* off 173 balls overnight. You wouldn't bet against another 500+ total here.  

ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League 2 Round Up

 

There has been a curiously contradictory nature to the last three games in this competition.

First off Namibia defied the odds to win by 110 runs against top of the table Oman. They then went on to lose to the United Arab Emirates by 3 wickets before they themselves went on to lose to Oman again. So in short it its bloody hard to figure out whose the better team here.

One guy who has had a very decent run of games though is Zahoor Khan who has picked up 10 wickets in the last 3 games including 4-51 today.

Games continue on Friday 

Zimbabwe Regional Games Day Four Update

 As predicted, the North won this with an innings to spare. It has been a like effort from the South across the series with very little of Merit to report. Opener Brian Mudzinganyama's 65 was the high water mark for the South today as 5 batters were out for single figure scores.

The North emphatically claimed the series. 

Zimbabwe Regional Games Day Three Update

Remembrance Nyathi scored his third century of 2022 as the North further put the South under the pump. He was one of two centurions on Day Three and the fourth player to cross more than 85 runs as the North were able to declare on a huge 476-8.

With a lead of 332, the North would have hoped to really turn the screw by getting some early wickets but the South navigated the 5 overs to scire 12 for the loss of no wicket. The innings defeat is odds on here. 

Zimbabwe Regional Games Day Two Update

In a continuation of continuity, Wessley Madhevere has provided another innings defining performance for the North today.

The North did what they needed to do and batted all day today with captain Madhevere on 89 when he was the 4th man down at 176-4. The North lost two further batters before stumps but put on over a hundred more runs. Stumps were drawn at 288-6, leaving them 144 runs in the lead. 

Zimbabwe Regional Games Day One Update

 It doesn't look as if the South Zimbabweans are going to mount a comeback in this series. After winning the toss and electing to bat, they were soon all out for just 144. This was largely thanks to a five wicket haul from Victor Nyauchi which included both openers for a cumulative 11 runs.

The only downside is that the North managed to lose two of their own wickets for just 48 runs in the 27 over left in the day.

ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League 2 Round Up

 

Here we are; back on Associate Cricket's Never-Ending tour as Oman, the UAE and Namibia Rock up in Dubai. As I have mentioned before there is a HUGE disparity regarding how many fixtures each team has played out. Oman top the table but have lacked 24 games, the UAE are 4th having played 11 with Namibia a place below them having played 2 fewer games. The best way to look at form is probably win ratio; which still puts Oman as top with 62.5% but Namibia are better value than they look have won 55.6% of their games. The UAE have won just 45.5%.

This form book played out as you'd expect in the first game today as Oman best the UAE. After posting 225-7, the UAE put up a fight but regular wickets from Bilal Khan (5-31) saw them fall 12 runs short.  These five wickets sees Bilal Khan increase his lead at the top of the wicket taking charts to a huge 8 wickets.

Oman are back in action against Namibia tomorrow. 

Zimbabwe Cricket Women's Fifty50 Challenge Round Up

 

Another round of fixtures, another dominant Mashonaland victory, another strong all round performance. This time it came from Christabel Chatonzwa who got 23 of Mashonaland's 152 before bagging 3-20 in Matabeleland's chase of just 74.

The Mid West Rhinos beat the Mointaineers in thr other fixtures. Josephine Nkomo put up another fine performance in that match. Her 61* putd her back atop the run scoring chart. Ashley Ndiraya added two more wickets to her tally to give her 11 - two clear of anyone else.

Fixtures continue on Monday with the last round of group games concluding on Wednesday. 

Afghanistan beat Bangladesh by 8 wickets

 Afghanistan tied this series up with a comprehensive win today. Fazalhaq Farooqi continued his impressive freshman season in international cricket with 3-18 to add to his 2-27. He has got 11 wickets across the two white ball formats in the 5 games.

Truth be told Bangladesh's total of 115 was far far too low and by the time Faooqi got his first wicket - at 99-6 - it was already game over.

Odd, and disappointing, thay there is not a third fixture.

Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by 61 runs

 After losing the ODI series, Afghanistan would have backed themselves in the T20 leg of this tour....but failed spectacularly.

Whilst high, Bangladesh's first innings total of 155-8 was not unobtainable - but Afghanitan were rocked by Nasun Ahmed's brilliant spell of 4-0-14-4. Three of those 4 wickets were the opening batters - out for a cumulative 8 runs. Afghanistan never recovered from this and were out for a mere 94.

The second game is on Saturday 

Zimbabwe Cricket Women's Fifty50 Challenge Round Up

 

Mashonaland continued their dominance in this competition. 

Not getting Precious Marange out proved costly for bottom of the table Mountaineers as they go 0-3. Marange's 48 saw log-leaders Mashonaland to 187 before The Mountaineers were 127-6 in a rain affected second innings. Marange is now the competition's leading runscorer with 115 @ 57.5.

The Mid West Rhinos beat Matabeleland in the other game of the day. Ashley Ndiraya continues to impress with the ball. Her 4-22 today takes her to 9 overall for the tournament - the highest for any bowler. 

The tournament continues on Saturday.