UAE Summer T20 Bash: A perfect warm-up for Ireland, Namibia, Scotland and PNG before World T20 2021
With the T20 World Cup 2021 first round around the corner, Emirates Cricket Board in partnership with Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland, Cricket Namibia, and Cricket Papua New Guinea, has decided to host the Summer T20 Bash, a tournament that would allow the teams some much-needed game time before they head into the all-important World Cup.
The tournament, with no final or finalist, is basically like warm-up fixtures with the only difference being that they would be treated as international T20 games. It will be hosted at the single venue of ICC Academy, Dubai Sports City (Dubai) from Tuesday, October 5th through to Sunday, October 10th.
In the series, the host nation the United Arab Emirates, who have actually not qualified for the T20 World Cup 2021, will play four games, three against Ireland, and one against Namibia.
In the other three games in this seven-match series, Scotland will play two games, one each against Papua New Guinea and Namibia, while Papua New Guinea & Namibia will play among themselves once as well. Thus every team in this tournament will get a hands-on experience of at least two games.
Mubashshir Usmani, General Secretary Emirates Cricket Board was happy to announce this much-needed tournament in the light of the fact that the teams competing in the first round would hardly have warm-up games leading up to the tournament.
“Emirates Cricket Board is very pleased to welcome Ireland, Scotland, Namibia and Papua New Guinea to the UAE and we are delighted to host the ‘DafaNews Summer T20 Bash’. This is a great opportunity for these participating teams to fine-tune their T20 skills as they approach their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup matches, and for our (UAE) team to gain experience from once again facing an ICC test-nation who will be highly motivated in putting their skills and experience on display. We look forward to a highly competitive series on home soil,” said Usmani in a press release by ECB.
Tournament so far
The tournament which started on October five has turned out to be an exciting affair with Sony Ten even broadcasting games involving UAE.
1st Match; UAE vs Namibia, October 05th
In the first match, Namibia, who would be competing in Group A in the first round alongside Netherlands, Ireland and Sri Lanka, turned out to be too good for the hosts UAE.
They won the match by 17 runs courtesy of a stellar bowling performance by Jan Nicolaas Frylinck, who picked up six wickets with his left-arm medium-fast to restrict the hosts to 142-9, thereby handing them a 17 run defeat.
2nd Match: UAE vs Ireland, October 07th
In the second game of the tournament, hosts UAE were once again on the receiving end, but this time at the hands of Ireland. Once again it was some brilliant bowling performance from Ireland which restricted the home side to only 123-7 in the allotted 20 overs. Curtis Campher picked three wickets while experienced Mark Adair and young leggie Benjamin White picked two wickets each.
The chase then turned out to be a cakewalk for the Irish as Pual Stirling and Kevin O’Brien put up 90 for the first wicket in just 13 overs. Even as they fell and so did skipper Andrew Balbarnie in a space of 25 runs, which took 36 balls to complete and got people thinking that the match might stretch to the last over, but it wasn’t to be as Campher hit two fours in a row to finish the game in the 19th over itself.
3rd Match: UAE vs Ireland, October 08th
It took matches, but UAE did come back eventually in the third game and beat much higher-ranked Ireland to salvage some pride of playing at home. The victory was even sweeter because it was UAE’s biggest margin of victory against a test playing nation. The Irish were bowled out for 109 in 18.4 overs chasing a total of 163.
For UAE, right-arm leg break bowler, born in Chennai, India, Kartik Meiyappan was the hero of the game, picking four crucial wickets including those of well set Campher and George Delany. In batting, Chirag Suri and Basil Hameed scored important runs for the hosts. In fact, Suri scored his fourth T20I fifty, making 51 off 44.
4th Match: Scotland vs PNG, October 08th
Playing their first game of the tournament, the Scottish team showed no mercy whatsoever in bashing Papua New Guinea by eight wickets with 14 balls remaining. It was a proper show of inter from the Scottish team which meant business even in its warm-up game against neighbours Ireland earlier this week, defeating them by five wickets.
In this game, PNG scored 154 in their 20 overs courtesy of a fifty by skipper Assad Vala and some late charge by Sese Bau who scored 38 off 26 balls. Scotland, on the other hand, didn’t skip a beat. With fifty from George Munsey and an unbeaten 41 from Richie Berrington, they reached the target in the 18th over itself.
In the remaining two days, three matches will be played including Scotland vs Namibia on October 9th, UAE vs Ireland and PNG vs Namibia on October 11.
 "Abhishek Singh")
