Qualifiers Done. Round 1 Conclusion

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Performance at a Glance:-

ICC T20 World Cup 2022 has just started 6 days ago in Australia and we have witnessed some thrilling games and enjoyed plenty of exciting moments already. The qualifying round has been outstanding and the associate nations have given some pure master class cricket to their fans and to the whole cricketing world. While these games provided so much of fun and entertainment to some countries, at the same time few have got heartbreaks. Total 16 teams are participating in this tournament, from which 8 teams played in round 1. Sri Lanka, Namibia, United Arab Emirates and Netherlands in Group-A and West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Scotland in Group-B.


Group-A

This group was featured with teams like Sri Lanka, Namibia, UAE and Netherlands. Let us look at how each team have performed here and where they finished?

Sri Lanka:-

Just a few days ago Sri Lanka had won Asia Cup held in UAE, and in that tournament they had beaten almost every opponent including India & Pakistan (twice). After losing the 1st game against Afghanistan by a huge margin, they made a stellar come back and became champion. It was hard to believe that they are playing the qualifiers in the WC. It was clear that they are going to super 12 easily, but they faced a night mare in the very first game against Namibia. While no one thinking about this big upset, Namibia stunned everyone with their excellent performance. However after that game Sri Lanka made their comeback strongly and won their remaining two games against Netherlands & UAE and finished at top in their group.



Netherlands:-

The Dutch started their campaign with a tensed win over UAE and then they came over the challenge of Namibia who was high on confidence after beating Asian Champions. After winning their first two games they were still needed to win the 3rd one also. But they lost that against Sri Lanka. They finished at 2nd position with 4 points in the group leaving behind Namibia & UAE with 2 points.



Namibia:

It was looked like Namibia will be the 1st team to enter into Super 12s after they put up a remarkable show against Sri Lanka in the opening encounter. But they couldn’t able to continue that momentum in next two games. They lost to the Dutch in 2nd game but still they had a decent chance to qualify at top in their group. Requirement was, just to beat UAE in their final encounter. Nothing tension was there for them in terms of NRR as they had already a decent one. They fought till the end but didn’t have the result in favor of them and finished at 3 only with a single win.



UAE:-

Having lost two out two games against Netherlands and Sri Lanka UAE was almost out of the tournament before their last game. Their 3rd game against Namibia was just a game to decide the fate of other three teams in the group, especially for Namibia as they were required to get those 2 points to qualify. For UAE it was about their pride and making history, because they hadn’t won a game in WC, so they were wanting to win it desperately. And Netherlands were also depending on UAE’s win to entry to Super 12s. At the end they got that result as UAE won the match by just 7 runs. There was every thing to cheer for them as they got their 1st victory in the big stage. UAE finished at bottom of Group-A



 

Group B  

West Indies, Scotland, Zimbabwe and Ireland were part of this group. Let us look at the performance given by all these teams in their group.

Zimbabwe:-



Expectations were very high on a team who had troubled big teams like India and Australia before coming into the WC. And they proved us right by giving top performance in the 1st round. In the opening game they comprehensively beat a good looking Ireland but failed to repeat it against two times champions West Indies team. But in the final game against Scotland, which was like a virtual knockout, they made it to the top of the group. The pressure was right up there on both the teams but Zimbabwe handled the pressure better hence got the ticket to Super 12s.

Ireland:-



While Zimbabwe started their campaign with a win over Ireland team, they were also in a huge trouble at a time in the game against Scotland. But they mange to pull out an excellent victory from that position and continued that momentum in the final battle against confused looking Caribbean side. Just like Zimbabwe it was a straight forward game for Ireland, win it and make to the Super 12s and they did it with quite supremely. They finished at 2nd position in the group.

Scotland:-

Just like Namibia in the A group, Scotland gave a heavy defeat to most successful side of this tournament, West Indies. They won the 1st game by a huge margin over them, but lost the way from middle of the qualifying round. They were also looked favorites to win the second game against Ireland, but were thrashed by them at the end. And in the most important day, in the last game of qualifying round where they were required a win to get the qualification, they lost the game easily from Zimbabwe and finished at 3rd.



West Indies:-

If someone has said it before the WC has started, that- the most successful team which has won the trophy twice in 2012 & 2016 will be knocked out of this year’s WC from round 1, then he or she might have criticized a lot or people might have made fun of him/her. But the shocking reality of today is that. West Indies have finished at bottom of their group, losing 2 out of 3 games. After a bad day against Scotland they came back stronger with the ball against Zimbabwe in the 2nd game and managed a good win but their batting failure cost them in knockout game against energetic Ireland team. Their fans will be very disappointed on the early exit of the team from the mega event and on the fact that they even didn’t looked like a team playing at a huge level, a clear inspection is needed in their team.


Pictures Source:- Google

 

Points Table of Round-1

Group-A

Sl.No

Team

Match Played

Won

Lost

Points

NRR

1

Sri Lanka(Q)

3

2

1

4

+0.667

2

Netherlands(Q)

3

2

1

4

-0.162

3

Namibia

3

1

2

2

+0.730

4

UAE

3

1

2

2

-1.235

 Group-B

Sl.No

Team

Match Played

Won

Lost

Points

NRR

1

Zimbabwe (Q)

3

2

1

4

+0.200

2

Ireland (Q)

3

2

1

4

+0.105

3

Scotland

3

1

2

2

+0.304

4

West Indies

3

1

2

2

-0.563

 




Match Played

Won

Lost

Points

NRR


 

 


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