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OD World Cup Review

Tour Details

We entered this world cup with a realistic shot of playing finals and with an outside chance of going all the way. In the end, we missed out on finals qualification on NRR which is a disappointment. It's particularly frustrating to get close enough where NRR was the deciding factor and still miss out. Anyway, we'll quickly recap the games and then go in to individual performances.

Fixtures
Game 1 v Pakistan - Lost by 7 wickets

We started our tour by failing to defend 331 against Pakistan, in Overcast/Flat conditions. Aminul Bishwash (95 off 105), Syed Zobair (82 off 75) and Milon Rafique (73* off 56) all made good contributions, but losing 4 wickets in the final 10 overs hurt our attempted charge in the slog overs. Pakistan cruised home, set up by a 249-run opening partnership with our quicks failing to take a wicket between them (LFS Dhawal Shewag took 3/70 off 9 overs).

Game 2 v Bermuda - Lost by 5 wickets

Game 2 saw us go down to Bermuda, who have qualified for the grand final. We lost the toss for the 2nd time and were asked to bat in Overcast/Uneven conditions. This was the most frustrating performance of the tour from my perspective, but not for the batting. We made 7/229 in conditions that give F/FMs considerable assistance (Syed Zobair and Arafat Khadim both made 61), so we expected that our highly-rated pace attack would blow Bermuda away. Debojit Das was superb in taking 3/34, but got little support (Semi Valemei 0/36 off 9, Rubel Hafiz 0/46, Saeed Uddin 1/57) from his fellow quicks as Bermuda got over the line with 11 balls to spare.

Game 3 v Canada - Won by 6 runs

Things finally turned around against Canada, in the same conditions as game 1. We were once again asked to bat first, and made 7/334 - just 4 more runs than we did in the loss to Pakistan. Bishwash made a fine 123 off 109, backed up by Santosh Dutta (63 off 71) and Milon Rafique (55 off 48). Semi Valemei and Akram Matin (both 1/49) managed to keep it tidy, and despite the struggles of the rest of the bowlers (combined figures of 1/230 off 30 overs) Canada fell 6 runs short of victory. Malcolm Moreno (169* off 152) and Jamel Randolph (89 off 99) did well, but it wasn't quite enough in the end.

Game 4 v Australia - Won by 6 wickets

The turnaround continued with a 6 wicket victory over the other team in the grand final, Australia. In Windy/Green conditions, we were asked to bowl first as Australia made 7/263. Sarvesh Rayudu (4/52) and Dhawal Shewag (3/37) were superb but got little support (Jaffor Wadud was economical with 0/47) and 263 seemed like a very good total in what should be bowler-friendly conditions. Instead, we ran it down with 6 wickets and 17 balls to spare. Syed Zobair's 59 off 73 set things up for Moinul Chowdhury (95* off 89) and Debojit Kapoor (48* off 53) to charge home.

Game 5 v Sri Lanka - Won by 4 wickets

We then completed the hat-trick of wins by successfully chasing 218 against Sri Lanka. We entered this game in a similar position as the Sri Lankans - to qualify, both teams needed to win and hope Australia either tied or lost to a winless Canadian outfit, as Australia's NRR (+0.6993) was too much for SL (+0.1047) or us (-0.0295) to overcome. We turned in our most complete bowling performance of the tournament (our "worst" performing bowler Akram Matin still managed to keep things tidy, taking 0/48), spearheaded by Semi Valemei (3/25) and Dhawal Shewag (4/45). Our openers were kept quiet but Santosh Dutta (71 off 85), Milon Rafique (59 off 88) set things up for Debojit Kapoor (31* off 36) to close out. Unfortunately, Australia beat Canada and we missed out on qualification.

OD World Cup - Touring Squad

Batters

Aminul Bishwash - Welsh Fire (4 games) - Aminul tonned up against Canada and made 95 in the loss to Pakistan, finishing the tournament with 265 runs @ 66.25 (SR 94.64). A fine effort from the veteran opener.

Rishi Chauhan - Armstrong 13's (2 games) - Rishi was unable to grasp his chances, managing 38 runs @ 19 (SR 70.37). He made 15 off 30 v Bermuda and 23 off 24 v Australia and moves on to senior cricket before the first tour of next season.

Moinul Chowdhury - Denstone (2 game) - Moinul made 131 runs @ 131 (SR 119.09, the highest of our batters), thrashing 36 off 21 against Canada and 95* off 89 against Australia. His power game in the middle order really came off on this tour, his final at U20 level.

Santosh Dutta - The North Howick Diamondbacks (2 games) - Santosh made half-centuries in both his innings, ending with 134 runs @ 67 (SR 85.90). Santosh signs off from U20 cricket by showcasing his reliability at no. 3.

Mahir Kamal - Oxhey Players (3 games) - Mahir managed 82 runs @ 27.33 (SR 92.13), making 3 cameos but not kicking to play a substantial innings. Not bad, but not particularly good either.

Arafat Khadim - Revolution (4 games) - Arafat had one good innings and 3 flubs. He made 80 runs @ 20 (SR 71.43) with a fine 61 against Bermuda, but didn't reach double figures in any of his other innings. A bit of a let-down in his final act at U20 level.

Milon Rafique - Illawarra Dragons CC (4 games) - Milon had a very strong tour, making 203 runs @ 67.67 (SR 94.86). He made half-centuries against Pakistan, Canada and SL, making him one of our better performing bats. A fond farewell from an excellent U20 player.

Syed Zobair - The Shrill Otters (4 games) - Syed continued his strong OD form with 209 runs @ 52.25 (SR 76.28). His low SR is a non-issue as he was regularly asked to lay a platform for the middle order to capitalise on, and he did so in consistent fashion. We will miss Syed's reliability at the top in the coming season.


Wicketkeepers

Debojit Kapoor - Mekerz Tanks (4 games) - Debojit Kapoor did his job of accelerating in the middle order, ending with 133 runs @ 133 (SR 104.72). He also hung on to 8 catches across his 4 games which is tied for most keeper dismissals and most catches in the tournament (at time of writing), in a fine all-round performance.

Zahed Haque - W&HCC (1 game) - Zahed had a quiet tour, scoring 6 off 5 in the middle of a late-innings collapse against Canada, and dropping the only catch that came his way.


Allrounders

Sarvesh Rayudu - Xanadoosra (1 game) - Sarvesh was fantastic in his lone game on a Green pitch, taking 4/52 and a catch in the win over Australia. Next season should see Sarvesh become a more consistent member of the starting XI.

Dhawal Shewag - El Dude Brothers (4 games) - Dhawal was required to bat twice, making 15 off 11 v Canada and a golden duck against SL. With the ball, however, he ended the group stages as the competition's leading wicket-taker (and still holds this title at time of writing), with 11 wickets @ 21.45 (ER 6.05, SR 21.27). His batting didn't come off, but his bowling was first rate.

Saeed Uddin - ARKACHIEVERS (1 game) - Saeed struggled in his lone appearance, taking 1/57 in what should have been very friendly conditions for him in the loss to Bermuda.

Bowlers

Mehrab Ahmed - Caradon CC (3 games) - Mehrab signs off from U20 nats with a disappointing tournament. He took 1/180 across 3 games (ER 6, SR 180), struggling for economy and to be a wicket-taking threat.

Debojit Das - Sydney Cricket Club (4 games) - Debojit had one fantastic performance, one competent performance and a pair of questionable ones. He took 3/34 in the loss to Bermuda, where he was comfortably the best performing quick in either team. He took 0/46 against SL, keeping things tidy while Shewag and Valemei were nearly unplayable. He got hammered by Pakistan (0/81) and was anonymous v Australia (0/57), ending with 3 wickets @ 72.67 (ER 5.45, SR 80). Disappointing from a very fine bowler.

Rubel Hafiz - ALIENS (1 game) - Rubel was anonymous against Bermuda in very helpful conditions, taking 0/46. He was reasonably tidy, but we needed more.

Akram Matin - Crowlandia Cricket Club (3 games) - Akram took 2 wickets @ 75.50 (ER 5.18. SR 87.50), which sounds bad but considering he played on a Flat pitch & 2 Uneven pitches, his economy in unhelpful conditions was valuable.

Imrul Rahman - Hoarders CC (1 game) - Imrul played against Australia and managed 0/62 against a powerhouse batting lineup.

Semi Valemei - Mackay Cutters (4 games) - Semi's tour was similar to Debojit Das' - excellent v SL (3/25), sound against Canada (1/49), anonymous v Pakistan (0/52 off 8.1 overs) and Bermuda (0/36 off 9 overs). 4 wickets @ 40.50 (ER 4.36, SR 55.75) is below what he is capable of.

Jaffor Wadud - Bancroft (3 games) - Jaffor had a bit of a shocker, taking no wickets in his 3 appearances (0/180, ER 6). Taking 0/53 on a road against Pakistan was fine, but disappearing for 80 runs v Canada almost cost us the game. Taking 0/47 on a Green pitch v Australia was disappointing for a man of great promise.