What a week! 3 Wins, 2 Losses and we march off to Div. 2 in the Slash and Dash format of the game.
Just to give some context on how successful a week it was - that's the first tour since Season 45 where we have won more than 2 matches. We have 5 competitive wins so far in Season 48. We managed two total last season.
Tour Wrap
Results:
21 run win over Kenya.
10 run loss to Zimbabwe.
6 wicket win over Ireland.
33 run loss to Scotland.
9 wicket win over South Africa.
Ladder:
1st. Scotland 4 wins
2nd. UAE 3 wins +0.74 NRR
3rd. Ireland 3 wins +0.47 NRR
4th. South Africa 3 wins -1.04 NRR
5th. Kenya 2 wins -0.48 NRR
6th. Zimbabwe 2 wins -0.60 NRR
Now a look into how our lads performed individually this week:
Our Best Performers:
1. Kamal Qassem - 249 fantasy points from 3 matches
2. Nawfal Shadi - 224 fantasy points from 4 matches
3. Kaliq Aziz - 221 fantasy points from 2 matches
4. Amir Alam - 194 fantasy points from 3 matches
5. Rais Armanjani - 175 fantasy points from 3 matches
The Shockers:
1. Ismael Armanjani - 20 fantasy points from 2 matches
2. Rahul Jabbar - 28 fantasy points from 4 matches
3. Ubaid Mahmood - 46 fantasy points from 2 matches
Most Runs Scored:
1. Khayri Salah - 118 runs from 4 innings
2. Alam Nu'man - 102 runs from 3 innings
3. Shaquille Rahman - 67 runs from 3 innings
Lovemore Bunjira of Zimbabwe leading the tour with 164 runs from 4 innings.
Our highest score: Alam Nu'man's 58 against South Africa. (Beating Salah's effort also against South Africa of 57 by 1 run)
The most average: Alam Nu'man had our best average for the tour with 51.00 (a not out helping that)
The MAXIMUM: Four batsmen (Zimbabwe's Brendan Taylor, South Africa's Forward Mboyi, Ireland's Anderson Silva and Ireland's Paul Striling) hit four 6s in the tour. Jaul Ghayth was our best, hitting three maximums.
Most Wickets Taken:
1. Kamal Qassem - 9 wickets for 55 runs from 3 matches and 68 balls (best on the tour from any nation)
2. Nawfal Shadi - 7 wickets for 110 runs from 4 matches and 96 balls
3. Kaliq Aziz - 6 wickets for 73 runs from 2 matches and 48 balls
Best Figures:
Kamal Qassem's 4/26 against Scotland. Kaliq Aziz also managed 4/35 against South Africa.
Two players managed 5 wicket hauls (Scotland's Isaac Newton against us UAE, Kenya's Daudi Ngwale against Zimbabwe)
Best Bowling Average:
Naturally taking the most wickets meant Qassem had the best average, averaging a wicket every 6.11 runs conceded. (Best bowling average on the tour from any nation)
Mr Economical:
Kamal Qassem - economy rate of 4.85. (Best bowling economy on the tour from any nation)
Best Fielder:
Jaul Ghayth had 3 catches for the tour. Equal second for the tour - South Africa's Joseph Makunurra lead the way with 4 catches.
Ghayth also managed a runout.
Our Keepers:
Cemal Ma'mun took the gloves in 3 matches and took 8 catches (best on the tour)
Kamil Salah took the gloves twice and had 2 catches.
No stumpings for UAE this week, Ireland's Anderson Silva leading the way with 3 stumpings.
Tour Pitch Report:
1st Preference - Hard
Matches Played: 8
Toss Decision: Captains Chose to Bat first in 6 of the 8 matches.
Win the Toss, Win the Game?: True in 4 of the 8 matches.
Bat First, Win the Game?: True in 6 of the 8 matches.
Ratings Schmatings: Higher rated team won in 7 of the 8 matches (Our loss to Zimbabwe the outlier
)
2nd Preference - Flat
Matches Played: 3
Toss Decision: Captains Chose to Bat first in 1 of the 3 matches.
Win the Toss, Win the Game?: True in 1 of the 3 matches.
Bat First, Win the Game?: True in 1 of the 3 matches.
Ratings Schmatings: Higher rated team won in 2 of the 3 matches.
3rd Preference - Dry
Matches Played: 4
Toss Decision: Captains Chose to Bat first in 1 of the 4 matches.
Win the Toss, Win the Game?: True in 2 of the 4 matches.
Bat First, Win the Game?: True in 3 of the 4 matches.
Ratings Schmatings: Higher rated team won in 2 of the 4 matches. (Our wins against Kenya/Ireland the outliers).
Sunny all week except for Tuesday when it was a little bit cloudy.
As always, I am human, so apologies for any errors in the above data.
Another tour done and dusted. The seniors will be back on the 16th of August for a week of One Day Div. 3 Cricket.
Youth tour up next week - Div. 2 T20 for the lads. Games are in Scotland - so games start at 0900 FTP time.
Get around the youth.
For those who have read this far, I love you all.
May all your youth pulls be handsome and your academies upgraded.