Cricket news round-up – 26 October: all T20 World Cup spots still up for grabs, Karnataka win Vijay Hazare Trophy

Cricket news round-up – 26 October: all T20 World Cup spots still up for grabs, Karnataka win Vijay Hazare Trophy

Scotland Papua New Guinea PNG

Twelve teams are still competing for the six spots in next year’s ICC T20 World Cup; Abhimanyu Mithun’s hat-trick and five-wicket haul helped Karnataka win their fourth Vijay Hazare Trophy; the schedule for England’s next year’s tour of Sri Lanka was announced; and the injured Jasprit Bumrah will not require surgery anytime soon.

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers Group A roundup

With 8 points, Papua New Guinea are at the top of the points table of Group A, followed by Netherlands, Scotland, and Namibia, all of whom are on 6. Of the four teams, Netherlands have a match in hand. With no win in 5 matches, Bermuda are out of the hunt.

Papua New Guinea piled up 180/4 thanks to a 79-ball stand in 47 balls between Charles Amini (41* in 28 balls) and Kiplin Doriga (43* in 27). Navin Param had 4-0-27-2. Damien Ravu (4-0-18-4) then helped restrict Singapore to 137/9, the only resistance coming from Tim David (44 in 26).

Later in the day, Stephan Baard (51 in 39) and Gerhard Erasmus (52* in 25) took Namibia to 181/5. In response, Kenya capitulated to 94 against Bernard Scholtz (4-0-12-4) and JJ Smit (3.5-0-19-3).

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers Group B roundup

Oman, Canada, Ireland, and UAE are all on 6 points, fighting for the three spots. The first two have two matches left while the others have one. Nigeria have been eliminated.

Mark Adair (4-1-10-3) and David Delany (2.3-0-12-2) bowled out Jersey for 105 in the morning. In response, Ireland barely broke a sweat, winning by 8 wickets with 6 overs to spare, largely due to Paul Stirling’s 37-ball 58 not out.

Srimantha Wijeyeratne’s 36-ball 56 took Canada to 144/9 in the last match of the day as Zeeshan Maqsood returned 4-0-25-3 and Khawar Ali 4-0-18-2. Oman, buoyed by a 63-ball second-wicket stand of 126 between Jatinder Singh (68* in 39) and Aqib Ilyas (60 in 39), won by 8 wickets in the 15th over.

Birthday bonanza for Abhimanyu Mithun

Abhimanyu Mithun scythed through the Tamil Nadu lower order on his 30th birthday. He finished with 5/34 including a hat-trick that included Shahrukh Khan, Mohammed Mohammed, and M Ashwin.

Asked to bat, Tamil Nadu reached 148/2 thanks to a 124-run stand between Abhinav Mukund (85) and Baba Aparajith (66). Vijay Shankar and Shahrukh then threatened to cut loose before Mithun removed both, and from 224/5 Tamil Nadu were bowled out for 252.

In response, Karnataka lost Devdutt Padikkal early, but KL Rahul (52*) and Mayank Agarwal (69*) took the score to 146/1 in 23 overs when rain stopped play. Play never resumed, and Karnataka won the trophy by virtue of being way ahead of the adjusted target of 87.

England to tour Sri Lanka in March

Sri Lanka will host England for a 2-Test series in March as part of the ongoing ICC Test Championship. With 60 points, Sri Lanka are currently placed third in the table, while England are fifth, with 56. However, England had whitewashed Sri Lanka 3-0 at their den last winter.

The schedule reads:
March 7-9: vs Sri Lanka Cricket Board President’s XI, Katunayake
March 12-15: vs Sri Lanka Cricket Board President’s XI, P Sara Oval
March 19-23: 1st Test, Galle
March 27-31: 2nd Test, R Premadasa

Bumrah heads towards recovery

Bharat Arun, bowling coach of the Indian team, confirmed that Jasprit Bumrah will not recover immediate surgery to recover from his back injury. Bumrah had missed the entire Test series against South Africa, though that did not prevent India from whitewashing the tourists 3-0.

“We expect Bumrah to be back sooner than later, hopefully in time for the New Zealand Test series that is our next big challenge. As of now, he doesn’t need surgery,” Arun confirmed in an interview with The Hindu.