UAE U20 - News & Discussion

[heppa]

I'm sure they appreciate the thanks but Kai'm and Mullet have one tour left

Moose trying to retire them early after that weeks performance.

[MrMoose]

Last t20 tour?

[Penky]

Reasonable save

[MrMoose]

Another YOD Div 1 tour this week with games being played in South Africa (0800 start times).

Let’s see if the lads can snag another Div 1 title!

[MrMoose]

Day 1 of the tour saw us take on Sri Lanka in Sunny conditions on a crumbling pitch.

Sri Lanka opted to bat and our spinners contained them to 142 before our bats showed composure to chase the total comfortably.

Cam Green was best on with 1/20 off 7 overs and then an unbeaten 32. Greeny was supported nicely by Habib/Nazih (3 wickets each) and Omar/Sa’eed (40, 35 respectively).

Australia up next today and as always will be a challenge! The lads look optimistically at the chance of a giant killing and will give it a red hot crack. Tune in at 0800.

[MrMoose]

Tough luck against the Aussies.

Spin quality was the difference with two of their spinners taking 8 wickets between them and our 3 spinners only managing 3 between them.

Aussies once again too strong but we were optimistic with only the 5k rating gap (smallest it’s been in quite a while).

We will look to keep winning and keep the pressure right on the Aussies if they want to win the title.

Ireland up next at 0800!

[MrMoose]

Boy oh boy wowe!

The conditions were cloudy and dry like a bad scotch (idk I don’t drink) and Ireland were our opponents.

Batting first we managed 211 courtesy of a tail wag. 5/93 turning into 211 thanks to Yusef, Green and Habib.

Commentators and crowd all debated whether 200 was par but in the end it matters not.

After 31 overs, Ireland are 3/143.
After 37 overs, Ireland are 4/176.
36 runs off 13 overs. 2.77 an over needed flying at 4.76 an over.
36 runs OR 6 wickets!

Enter Habib
1st over of his spell - 2 runs no wickets
2nd over - bang bang both established bats in the shed.
3rd over - another one

After 40 overs, Ireland are 7/186
Essa jumps in and grabs one down the other end.

Habib is swung around to the other end.
Another wicket in each of his 2 overs and he ends the game!
Ireland fall painstakingly short by 10 runs.

Habib ends with 5/35 off 9.2 overs. What a performance!

Around the grounds:
Muda beat Australasian despite a 9k rating diff.
Sri Lanka beat the Netherlands.

Muda sit top currently undefeated.
Then us, Aussies and SL sit with two wins each.
Ireland and Netherlands both yet to register a win.

A win against Bermuda will ensure we avoid relegation and also put us right in the title race. Tune in at 0800!

[MrMoose]

Losing the toss and being spanked to all parts certainly wasn’t on the team whiteboard when I looked but who am I to question the process.

Amsterdam scoring 80 as Bermuda loaded up 230 on the board.

Our lads then produced one of the most complete batting performances I’ve ever seen. 50s to Haqq and Omar supported by 20s and 30s from everyone else saw us chase down the total with 6 wickets and a handful of overs to spare.

Around the grounds:
The Netherlands chased down 250 to continue Irelands bad run of luck.
Australia beat Sri Lankan (boo).

Muda, us and the Aussies all sit equal top with 3 wins.
All now safe from relegation and all play against the other 3 teams today. Get out your calculators and strap yourself in we have an NRR race to the title.

Sri Lanka have 2 wins, Netherlands 1 and Ireland winless

Tune in at 0800 to see if we can snag a div 1 title!

[MrMoose]

Woo hoo! Div 1 title!

[heppa]

Champions again

[MrMoose]

Last week saw us clinch another Div 1 title!

Tariq Omar lead the way for us with the bat with his 175 runs.
Habib the start with the bowl with 9 wickets. Adbul and Nazih not far off him with their 7 each.
Dhakir lead the way in the field with 3 catches.
The Mullet leading the way with the gloves - 8 catches, 3 stumpings and a runout.

Attention now turns to the World Cups!

[MrMoose]

What a day! Every single match going to the death over with 3 last ball thrillers and 2 big upsets!

In our game:
Ireland looked like they were flying at 2 for 143 after 15 overs.
Cam Green stood up and knocked over both established bats in an over, Medal and Dhakir joined the party before Greeny snagged another. Ireland going 5/31 in the last 5 overs to set a target of 175.

Abba was knocked over in the second over, before Sa'eed and Haqq put on a 50 run partnership. Sa'eed and Imad fell in quick succession before Haqq and Khaleel combined forces to put on a 71 run partnership. Haqq's dismissal led to a mini collapse losing 2 in 2 balls but needing only 10 runs from the last 2 overs, we managed to limp across the line.

Green MotM - showing how important he is to us this week!

The other games in our group:

England Vs Bermuda which to me felt like the top 2 play off in our group leading into the week saw Bermuda win off the last ball.

West Indies held on by 1 run, with Zimbabwe only managing 14 of the 15 required after the last (they did go down swinging though with 22 off the 19th). Zimbabwe outrated West Indies by 8k so I would call this an upset win.

The other group:
New Zealand chased down USAs target in the last over (with 2 balls to spare). NZ were 6k outrated but idk if that counts as upset territory.

Scotland won off the last ball against the juggernaut Australians. Overcoming a 15k ratings differential, the scots smacking a 6 off the last ball to win in true style!

Kenya chased down Canada's total with a ball and 7 wickets to spare.

That means our game (we won with 3 balls to spare) was technically the least close game yesterday. 6 absolute thrillers - that's what T20 can produce!

Worth noting Scotland (166.5k) was the lowest rating side and Australia (181.5k) was the highest rating side. Off the top of my head, that seems to be the closest rating gulf (from top to bottom side) in recent World Cup history. I just quickly looked and the Aussies outrated their direct opponent by 21k and 25k respectively in the last two world cups. You get the feeling this week is going to be wild!

Tune in at 0800 - next up for us is the Triangle Tribe of Bermuda!

[MrMoose]

That was a hard viewing.

The bats didn’t get going and the bowling didn’t make inroads.

Muda too strong and stay unbeaten.

West Indies have also beaten England to stay unbeaten.
Zimbabwe beat Ireland to join us with one win.

In the other group Scotland held on to beat the USA despite a [dropped] and a [missed runout] in the last over.
Australia got on the winners list against Canada.
Kenya beat New Zealand.

That means group 1 looks like
Kenya/Scotland 2 wins
Australia/New Zealand 1 win
Canada/USA 0 wins

And group of looks like
Bermuda/west indies 2 wins
UAE/Zimbabwe 1 win
England/Ireland 0 wins

We go again tomorrow! Seniors get their chance later on!
Go uae

[MrMoose]

Still alive, barely breathing!

Need a lot to go our way tomorrow but a great showing from our bats (particularly the openers) gives a chance to go and grab a finals berth tomorrow.

Need to win (and probably big)
Probably need England to lose (who are playing the so far winless Ireland)
Probably need Bermuda to smoke the West Indies

Easy game - Let’s go get it!

[MrMoose]

A disappointing week as we finished 5th in our group managing just the two wins.

The two qualifying teams from our group went onto play in the final - congratulations to both Zimbabwe and Bermuda. Zimbabwe taking the chocolates overall.

We go back to the drawing board and start looking forward to a Div 1 YOD tour and a chance to get back up into Div 1 YT20.