Ireland conquer Bangladesh in a morale-boosting win by 33 runs
Considered one of the pushovers, the Irishmen got a much-needed lift-me-up, defeating Bangladesh in their second and final warm-up game before the T20 World Cup 2021 on Thursday in Abu Dhabi.
The Men in Green conquered their more experienced full-member rivals by a margin of 33 runs after an inspiring all-round display. They posted a total of 177/3 in the first half before dismissing Bangladesh for 144.
Gareth Delany was the star with the bat, making an unbeaten 88 off 50 balls. Either side of his fantastic knock, the likes of Paul Stirling (22), skipper Andy Balbirnie (25) and Harry Tector (23) played useful innings to propel their team past the 170-mark.
Craig Young (2/21), Joshua Little (2/22) were the pick of the bowlers for Ireland in the second half, even though Mark Adair (3/33) got more wickets, as the European giant-killers clinched a morale-boosting win before the tournament proper.
Bangladesh will feel worried to have lost their second successive warm-up game, having also gone down to Sri Lanka on October 12. Only pacer Taskin Ahmed (2/26) and middle-order batters Soumya Sarkar (37) and Nurul Hasan (38) could claim to have had a good day on the field for them.
Netherlands inch ahead of Oman in a cliff-hanger
The Netherlands kept Oman at bay and came out triumphant by just four runs in a close-fought second warm-up game of the day in Dubai.
Timm van der Gugten proved to be the difference, defending 10 runs off the final over. Dutch pacer ended with figures of 1/29, which were bettered by Vivian Kingma (2/32) in his team’s defence of 165.
Logan van Beek (1/27), Colin Ackermann (1/11) also chipped in with useful breakthroughs in their tight spells, helping keep Oman down to 161/8.
Opening batter Aqib Ilyas was the stand-out performer in the chase for Oman, scoring 78 off 48 balls, but he proved to be the only Oman batter to cross the 30-run mark. Mohammad Nadeem’s 29 was the second-highest individual score of the second half.
As they did with the ball, the Netherlands also had a more all-round display with the bat. Openers Stephan Myburgh (43) and Max O’Dowd (21) got their team off to a solid start before knocks of substance from skipper Ben Cooper (40), Colin Ackermann (37*) and a cameo from Ryan ten Doeschate (16) took the Dutch past 160.
Scotland overcome Namibia in a high-scoring encounter
In a warm-up game featuring two of the associate world’s most powerpacked batting sides, Scotland defeated Namibia by a margin of 19 after scoring over 200 in the first half.
Half-centuries from George Munsey (67) and Matthew Cross (57) and useful little cameos from the rest allowed the Scotsmen to post a gigantic score of 203/7.
And though Craig Williams‘ brilliant 80 off 51 and thirties from Zane Green (34) and David Wiese (31) took the fight back to the opposition for Namibia, they could reach only as far as 184/5 in their 20 overs.
In a game where teams were allowed to play as many as 14 players, Namibia used nine bowlers. The former South Africa all-rounder Wiese was the pick of the lot with 2/23 off his three overs.
Nobody from Scotland’s camp ended with such impressive figures in a high-scoring game. But the likes of Bradley Wheal (2/36) and Mark Watt (2/34) got timely breakthroughs and ensured their team ultimately came out in the ascendancy.
