From The Pavilion

Good stuff, Moose. Our spinners were brilliant. I think Abdel, Ghafur and Abdulah took 30 wickets between them. They’ll all be in our World Cup squad so I’m hoping they can continue their good form.

The Youth T20 World Cup begins next Monday 13th September (16:00 game time). We've been drawn into group 2 against Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand, Netherlands, and South Africa.

Touring Squad:

Anwar Abdel (Emirates Academy)
Mustafa Abdel (Sons of Pitches)
Wahid Abdu'llah (Old Nova Scotians)
Nazmi Abdulah (Emirates Academy)
Akram Ata (Old Nova Scotians)
Junaid Fattah (Emirates Academy)
Tawfiq Ghafur (Birds XI)
Jawad Habib (Flaming Balls of Fury)
Ghiyath Hamdi (RedPanthers)
Hussein Hussein (PKF Tigers 2nd XI)
Naji Isam (Old Nova Scotians)
Isra'il Khaleel (Laverton Cricket Club)
Ahmad Kamal (Emirates Academy)
Gadil Khatib (Pedonkadonk)
Salman Nasser (Emirates Academy)
Abbas Rafi (Laputa Wonderers)
Nazmi Rafi (Emirates Academy)
Faraz Temiz (Twelfth Men II)

Half of our squad coming from two sides. Congrats to Penky and HeyTrueBrew and having such a solid representation.

Best performers leading up to WC Qualification:

Gadil Murat - 125 runs @ 41.67

Faraz Temiz - 95 runs @ 31.67

Salam Ibraheem - 6 wickets @ 15.50

Gadil Khatib - 5 wickets @ 12.00

UAE U20 at their last T20 World Cup:

Season 44 YT20 World Cup - 6th place, 1 win, 4 losses

Best YT20 World Cup Performance:

Season 42 YT20 World Cup - Semi Final against England U20 (lost by two runs)

UAE U20 have never participated in a T20 World Cup Final.

Good luck lads. Sure you'll be awesome

The U20 World Cup kicks off today - 1600.

Home UAE U20
Away Sri Lanka U20
Ground Chinook Ridge
League U-20 T20 World Cup
Date 13 Sep. 21 16:00
Pitch Uneven
Weather (forecast) Sunny

The u20 t20 record between these two teams is tight.

18 fixtures - 9 UAE wins, 8 UAE losses, 1 draw.

Last time: 4/8/21 won by 6 wickets (green humid)
Last time on an uneven pitch: 7/1/21 match drawn
Last time on a sunny day: 24/2/20 won by 19 runs
Overall record on an uneven pitch: 2 W / 2 L / 1 D
Overall record on a Sunny day: 2 W / 2 L
The two teams have never met on an uneven pitch on a Sunny day.

Let’s go get it done!

U20 T20 Group 2:
Netherlands
UAE
South Africa
Sri Lanka
England
New Zealand

Need to finish top 2 of the group to be involved in the semi finals.

We sit 11/18 teams in the world in the u20 t20 rankings currently. In our last t20 hitout we finished 3rd of the Div 2 tour.

South Africa
Ranked 2/18
4th in last t20 tour (Div 1)

New Zealand
Ranked 3/18
3rd in last t20 tour (Div 1)

England
Ranked 6/18
6th in last t20 tour (Div 1)

Sri Lanka
Ranked 7/18
5th in last t20 tour (Div 2)

Netherlands
Ranked 10/18
6th in last t20 tour (Div 2)

UAE
Ranked 11/18
3rd in last t20 tour (Div 2)

I would like to be the ever optimist and say I’m confident we will shine through and win all the upsets and sail through the semi.

But let me put my realist hat on for a minute.
Here’s some facts and facts only:
We are the bottom ranked team in the group
In season 48 we beat the Netherlands and Sri Lanka in t20 matches.
In season 46 we drew with Sri Lanka and lost to South Africa.
In season 45 we lost to New Zealand and Sri Lanka

In our last World Cup (season 45)
Beat England
Lost to New Zealand, West Indies and Australia

I haven’t fully reviewed the ratings or player in and outs. But my initial gut feeling is that if we can snag two wins this World Cup it’ll be a valiant effort.

Realistically to me it feels like New Zealand and South Africa will go through top with maybe England close behind.

I’d love to be wrong and it would be great to grab a few scalps.

Let’s give it our all and hopefully have some wins to discuss.

It’s our turn to make history

Nice review Moose. You're spot on when you say two wins will be a good effort considering the strengths of our opponents, however it's T20 - anything can happen. We want nothing short of qualifying for the semi finals, otherwise what's the point!

First game is up against the Sri Lankans on an uneven deck. They have some scary looking fast and fast-medium bowlers. I think if we can avoid being rattled by those guys, we'll have a chance of winning this one.

Our big players this week will be Kamal, Fattah, Ghafur, and both Abdels. If these guys can perform to their potential, we'll give this a good go!

Here's hoping people! Can't wait to see it get going.

Yep, got to to be shooting for the stars in a WC! It's the first one either NT side has made it to since the end of season 45, so we really want to give a good account of ourselves!

J. Habib (lfm) 4-0-33-0, C. Lucas 4 (3b), S. Gazali 0 (0b)
End of over 20 (8 runs) - Sri Lanka U20(167-4) RR 8.35

Ah, well, thats not ideal

V. de Mel (rf) 4-0-23-3, W. Abdu'llah 21 (13b), G. Khatib 1 (2b)
End of over 20 (2 runs) - UAE U20(150-7). 18 runs required from 0 overs. RR 7.50 RRR 0.00

Valiant effort, mostly from Ata, but ultimately conceded too many

World Cup Match # 1

Home UAE U20
Away Sri Lanka U20
Ground Chinook Ridge
League U-20 T20 World Cup
Date 13 Sep. 21 16:00
Crowd 17,500
Weather Sunny
Pitch Uneven

Sri Lanka U20 won the toss and elected to bat.

UAE U20 Sri Lanka U20
Batting - Top Order 10,543 11,011
Batting - Middle Order 8,587 7,675
Batting - Tail 4,283 4,001
Bowling - Seam 9,473 (16) 9,444 (16)
Bowling - Spin 12,948 (4) 12,206 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 11,678 10,190
Overall 175,246 167,302

Sri Lanka U20 won by 17 runs

The Match in a Tweet: Sri Lankan Openers combine 150 run partnership. They scored all but 13 of the runs for Sri Lanka.

Man of the Match: Gadil Khatib (UAE)

Our best:
Gadil Khatib - fought hard on a tough day for our bowlers. 3/33 off his 4 overs. All 3 wickets coming in the 19th over.

Akram Ata - a bit of a lone wolf in our chase. A nice little effort from Ata with 69 runs before being run out in the penultimate over.

Around the Grounds:
Group B:
England beat the Netherlands by 4 wickets.
New Zealand beat South Africa by 2 wickets.

Group A:
USA beat Zimbabwe by 7 runs.
Australia beat Scotland by 4 runs.
India beat the West Indies by 4 wickets.

Tune in at 1600 tomorrow as we take on South Africa.

Trust in the process

U20 T20 Group 2 after 1 match played:

1. Sri Lanka 1 win +0.85 NRR
2. England 1 win +0.44 NRR
3. New Zealand 1 win +0.38 NRR
4. South Africa 0 wins -0.38 NRR
5. Netherlands 0 wins -0.44 NRR
6. UAE 0 wins -0.85 NRR