EC Roundup – 27 July 2025 – More cricket than you can shake a stick at!

A busy week in the emerging game with Associate and non-member action across Europe, Africa and Asia

By
Tom Grunshaw
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Uganda celebrate a wicket at the ACA Africa T20 Cup

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

Rwanda, Sierra Leone advance to Africa Division 1

Uganda claim Pearl of Africa series

Malaysia sweep Asia Pacific Champions Trophy

Bilateral round-up 

Rwanda, Sierra Leone advance to Africa Division 1

Rwanda and Sierra Leone took a step closer to the Women’s T20 World Cup after taking the top two at the Africa Qualifier Division Two tournament in Botswana. Both sides qualified after 100% records in the group stage, before going on to win the all-important semi-finals. Rwanda defeated hosts Botswana by 35 runs, defending 99 to qualify. Sierra Leone then defeated Malawi, chasing 101 with 28 balls to spare.

The final, albeit ceremonial, was won by Rwanda by 51 runs, who defended 135 after Gisele Ishimwe’s 44. Hosts Botswana went on to finish third after defeating Malawi in a playoff match. Mozambique and Cameroon took 5th and 6th places, and Lesotho claimed 7th after defeating Eswatini.

Rwanda and Sierra Leone will join Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe in the Division One tournament which takes place in Namibia in September, with two berths at next year’s global qualifier available.

Uganda claim Pearl of Africa series

The Pearl of Africa T20 series was settled with a de facto final between Uganda and the UAE after an intense week of T20 cricket.

The hosts were joined by Kenya, Nigeria and the UAE for a double round-robin event. Uganda and UAE proved themselves a class above their opposition, winning all their games over Kenya and Nigeria by good margins. Their head-to-head contests were more even, as Uganda won the first by six runs defending 126.

This set up last day action, as Uganda led the points table, but UAE held a Net Run Rate advantage. The match was a more free-flowing affair, but again Uganda came out on top by a narrow margin. Fifties from Alpesh Ramjani and Raghav Dharwan helped Uganda set a total of 170/7, before a team effort from UAE fell eight runs short at 162/9.

Kenya finished third, defeating Nigeria in both their head-to-heads, whilst the West African side went winless in the T20I portion of the tournament. Adding to the event were a Namibia ‘A’ side, present to play six friendlies – two each against Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda ‘A’. The touring Namibia side won their first two games, against Uganda ‘A’ and Nigeria, but lost their following four.

Dharwan was the star with the bat overall, amassing 228 runs in 6 T20I innings, more than 60 ahead of the next highest accumulator. UAE’s Haider Ali led with the ball with 13 wickets and an average under 9.

Malaysia sweep Asia Pacific Champions Trophy

Malaysia showed fine form ahead of all-important T20 World Cup qualifiers with a seven-game winning streak at the Asia Pacific Champions Trophy in Singapore, including three wins over Hong Kong.

Singapore were joined by Hong Kong, Malaysia and Samoa for a 13-match tournament, in which a clear pecking-order was set. Malaysia dominated proceedings, winning all six group matches, ahead of Hong Kong in second with four wins. Singapore finished third, defeating Samoa twice as the Pacific nation went winless. This set up a final between Malaysia and Hong Kong, with the former completing their sweep with a 10-wicket win in a game shortened to five-overs each.

Anshy Rath shone with the bat, raising 274 runs for Hong Kong, just eclipsing Samoa’s Darius Visser on 266. But if the tournament belonged to any one player it was Virandeep Singh – the Malaysian all-rounder was third on the run chart, whilst simultaneously topping the wickets tally with 13.

The result bodes well for Malaysia, who go in search of a debut T20 World Cup in October, though shows the scale of the challenge facing Samoa who are also appearing in the combined Asia-Pacific regional final, though will likely be boosted by multiple inclusions.

Bilateral Round

Bahrain dominated the Rwanda tri-nations series, winning all eight of their group games. Malawi and the hosts won two each, with Malawi advancing to the final. Bahrain won the final by 94 runs to complete the sweep.

Switzerland were clear winners in Finland’s WT20I tri-series, winning all four league games and the final over the hosts. Finland and Estonia shared a game each in the league stage.

Meanwhile Finland and Estonia’s men’s teams met the other side of the Gulf of Finland in Tallinn. The two associate members were joined by non-members Lithuania and Latvia for the Baltic Cup, which was won by the hosts, winning all three matches. Finland were runners-up, with Latvia defeating Lithuania for third place.

Finally, the Budapest Cup was shared between hosts Romania and Austria, after the final was washed out. The Austrians had topped the league stage with three wins, with Romania second ahead of hosts Hungary, and Luxembourg fourth without a win.

Coming Up

The week starts quietly, but the European Summer resumed at the end of the week when Estonia host both Switzerland Men and Gibraltar Women for three-match T20I series.

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