Welcome to this week’s Emerging Cricket Roundup, condensing all the major news into one easy-to-digest place. In this week’s wrap:
Headlines
U19 Qualifiers in Europe and Americas
European Summer continues
U19 Qualifiers in Europe and Americas
Qualification for next year’s Men’s U19 World Cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia is approaching its conclusion. Scotland secured victory in the European qualifier, whilst action in the Americas qualifier is underway.
Fast starts for Scotland and the Netherlands reduced the six-team race to two contenders after three games. Monday’s fixtures were postponed on safety grounds after a storm swept across Scotland, and were played on Tuesday.
The Netherlands once again made light work of their opposition, setting a total of 263/8 against Sweden, led by Tom de Leede’s 74. In reply, Sweden were bowled out for only 59 with Tom McArthur taking three wickets. Meanwhile, Scotland faced more of a challenge against Denmark. The Scots set an imposing total of 292/6 led by Rory Grant’s century, but the Danes managed to get to 266/6 in reply, as Abdul Rafeh reached three figures.
This set up a winner-takes-all decider on Wednesday between Scotland and the Netherlands. The hosts won the toss and chose to bat, raising 237/8, with Olly Pillinger scoring 52 and Cedric de Lange taking 4/29. The Dutch lost early wickets in reply, and despite 67 from Tom de Leede, were bowled out for 217, giving the win, and a fourth consecutive U19 World Cup berth, to Scotland.
In the chasing pack were Jersey, 3rd with two wins, ahead of Denmark on net run rate. Guernsey and Sweden finished 5th and 6th with one win each.
Across the Atlantic, the final qualification tournament is underway in Georgia, USA. The USA are joined by Canada, Bermuda and Argentina for a double round-robin for the last place in the World Cup. USA got the better of their rivals in the opening game of the tournament, to win by 65 runs. Bermuda defeated Argentina by 237 runs in their opening fixture.
European Summer Continues
The wave of bilateral and tournament T20Is in Europe continues, with two series over the last week. Croatia hosted Cyprus for a four-match series, won convincingly by the visitors in a 4-0 margin.
In Stockholm, Sweden hosted the Viking Cup, with Norway, Austria and France the visiting teams. Austria won the league stage with three wins, with Norway second with two. Sweden defeated France to take third on the table. France claimed their first win in the 3rd place playoff, defeating Sweden by 2 wickets. The final, between Austria and Norway, was won by the Central European nation by 8-wickets, completing a comfortable chase of 106 inside 12 overs.
Coming Up
The Americas U19 qualifier continues until Saturday 16th August, with USA facing Canada in a likely deciding match. Singapore host Cambodia for three WT20Is between Thursday and Saturday. Finally, Papua New Guinea arrive in Guernsey as they prepare for the upcoming Challenge League A leg, playing a T20I and two one-day matches.
