T20WCQ Team of the Tournament

The T20 World Cup Qualifiers are over with the Dutch taking home the title overnight in the final over Papua New Guinea. With the conclusion of the tournament, the teams heading down under in 2020 have been locked in with Papua New Guinea, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, Namibia and Oman all securing qualification.

The ICC have announced their XI:

Not a bad XI from the ICC, but the team from Emerging Cricket have crunched the stats, argued, and brought together their own team of the tournament from the competition. The major differences were the inclusion of Nitish Kumar & Scott McKechnie who were all stand out performers in ultimately unsuccessful campaigns. Norman Vanua and Kinchit Shah were very popular picks across our teams’ selections but missed out on account of trying to get the best balance.

If it was a list of MVPs (that article is to come) Norman would be on the podium!

THE EC XI:

Paul Stirling
Jatinder Singh
Assad Vala (C)
Nitish Kumar
Gerhard Erasmus
Ryan ten Doeschate
Scott McKechnie
JJ Smit
Roelof van der Merwe
Brandon Glover
Bilal Khan
–
Norman Vanua 12th man

Each of our team submitted their XIs, and you can see them at the end of the article for your critique! Who do you agree with?

1. Paul Stirling (Ireland)
291 runs @ 41
Stirling set the tempo for the Irish team at the top of the order and had a tournament to remember. The opening bat was the leading run-scorer for the competition and hit the ground running with 62 and 72 from his first two matches. With no single-digit score for the entire competition, it was the starts that he gave the Ireland team that made his contributions so valuable.

2. Jatinder Singh (Oman)
267 runs @ 38
Singh was phenomenal for Oman at the qualifiers finishing third in the run-scoring for the competition. His best innings coming in Oman’s biggest match in the tournament an unbeaten 67 to defeat Hong Kong and guarantee qualification to the World Cup in Australia.

3. Assad Vala (Papua New Guinea) ©
197 runs @ 28, 10 wickets @ 4.5rpo
Vala was inspirational for his side in the competition well and truly leading from the front to help book his sides ticket to Australia. He was destructive in his sides opening match defeat of Bermuda crunching 53 off 35 balls to chase Bermuda’s score of 90 in 10 overs. Not only did he score almost 200 runs for the tournament, but Vala took 10 wickets at an impressive economy.

4. Nitish Kumar (Canada)
245 runs @ 49
Kumar had an excellent tournament for the Canada side at the qualifiers with the highest average among batsmen at the competition. Kumar scored 83, 57* and most notably 53 to steer his side to an upset victory over Ireland to open the tournament. If Canada were to qualify for the finals of the competition Kumar may well have pushed 300 runs for the competition

5. Gerhard Erasmus (Namibia)
268 runs @ 38, 4 wickets @ 6.57rpo
Erasmus finished second leading run-scorer at the competition in what was a prolific tournament for the Namibian captain. Erasmus punished the Singapore side finishing with 72 from 46 balls which included five fours and four sixes. His presence at five was important for the Namibian side allowing a player of the class of Erasmus to customise his role to accelerate or consolidate depending on his teams situation.

6. Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands)
233 runs @ 47
“Still the best finisher in world cricket” according to Tasneem, and his performances down the order for Essex and the Netherlands, at a strike rate of 136 this event only reinforced her strong view. Was a pillar of strength for the Dutch and his calmness under pressure made what could’ve been very tricky chases look very easy in a number of key matches.

7. Scott McKechnie (Hong Kong) (wk)
105 runs @ 27, 3 catches
Was close to the best with the gloves, and played a number of crucial innings throughout, almost getting Hong Kong over the line in their elimination qualifier against Oman, but taking POTM honours in their crucial win over Jersey.

8. JJ Smit (Namibia)
190 runs @ 27, 16 wickets @ 6.4rpo
Smit was electric with both bat and ball for the tournament. The left-armer had two three-wicket hauls over the tournament including, 3/19 against Ireland in the semi-final. As well as his work with the ball Smit eclipsed nearly 200 runs for the competition. Highlighted by a blistering 59 off 25 balls against Oman before taking 2-12 with the ball in the same match.  

9. Roelof van der Merwe
14 wickets @ 5.2rpo, 75 runs @ 26
Roelof was Mr Dependable with the ball for his skipper Pieter Seelaar and bowled this overs all throughout the innings, taking two wickets or more in five of Netherlands’ eight matches. In a strong field of left arm spinners, got the nod over Bernard Scholtz of Namibia (15 @ 5.4rpo) and Mark Watt of Scotland (12 @ 5.9rpo) due to his late order batting prowess and fielding within the ring.

10. Brandon Glover (Netherlands)
16 wickets @5.8rpo
Glover, an up and coming quick for the Netherlands, showed his potential in the tournament, with the 22-year old picking up 16 wickets across the competition. The pacer took 4/12 to roll through the UAE side and in turn qualify the Dutch for the world cup in Australia. Look for the sharp quick to play an integral role in Australia next year.

11. Bilal Khan (Oman)
18 Wickets @ 6.6rpo
Bilal Khan finished the tournament like a house on fire with ten wickets in his last three matches with his 4/23 leading the way for the Oman side to defend 135 in the qualifying playoff against Hong Kong. Bilal’s hot finish saw him pick up leading wicket-taker with the 31-year-old integral to his side’s success in getting Oman through to the world cup in Australia.

Notable mentions/reserves

Norman Vanua (PNG). Close to MVP for the entire event, three POTM awards, a hat-trick and a crucial 50 in the game against Kenya. Our everywhere man just couldn’t get in the XI at the expense of Assad Vala’s top order runs and Smit/van der Merwe’s versatility.

Kinchit Shah (Hong Kong) had to make way for Vala and ten Doeschate, but was a popular pick. With 223 runs @ 37 he was elite for Hong Kong throughout the event, and started the competition on fire with 79 off 54 balls against Test nation Ireland. Was handy with his offies, and was a leader in the field.

Bernard Scholtz and Mark Watt were only just behind Roelof van Merwe in a successful event for left-arm spinners. Matthew Cross (189 runs @ 47, 9 dismissals) finished the tournament with a bang for the Scots.

Paul van Meekeren bowled out of his skin against UAE, and Jan Frylinck took three-wicket hauls against the top two Group A sides, Netherlands and PNG.

Rohan Mustafa tried to pull the UAE through on his own back, but we just couldn’t squeeze him in.

Agree with our team, or the ICC’s? Who would you have in your XI?

THE EC TEAM XIs

Tim Cutler:

Paul Stirling
Jatinder Singh
Nitish Kumar
Kinchit Shah
Gerhard Erasmus
Ryan ten Doeschate
JJ Smit
Scott McKechnie
Roelof van der Merwe
Brandon Glover
Bilal Khan

Dan Kelly:

Paul Stirling
Jatinder Singh
Kinchit Shah
Nitish Kumar
Gerhard Erasmus
Assad Vala
Matthew Cross
JJ Smit
Jan Frylinck
Brandon Glover
Bilal Khan

Daniel Beswick:

Assad Vala
Jatinder Singh
Paul Stirling
Nitish Kumar
Gerhard Erasmus
Ryan Ten Doeschate
Roelof van der Merwe
Scott McKechnie
JJ Smit
Norman Vanua
Bilal Khan

Nick Skinner:

Paul Stirling
Jatinder Singh
Nitish Kumar
Gerhard Erasmus
Ryan Ten Doeschate
Roelof van der Merwe
Scott McKechnie
Norman Vanua
Bernard Scholtz
Brandon Glover
Bilal Khan

Frylinck 12th in for Scholtz on seaming pitch

Tasneem-Summer Khan:

Paul Stirling
Assad Vala (c)
Nitish Kumar
Kinchit Shah
Ryan ten Doeschate
JJ Smit
Scott McKechnie
Roelof van der Merwe
Norman Vanua
Bilal Khan
Paul van Meekeren