Engrossing contests on the cards
The teams have been divided in to groups of seven, with Scotland, the Netherlands, PNG, Namibia, Singapore, Kenya and Bermuda pooled together in Group A and the UAE, Ireland, Oman, Hong Kong, Canada, Jersey and Nigeria constituting Group B.
Each team play each other once and the top team from each group will advance to the semi-final of the tournament whereas securing direct qualification to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020. The next three highest placed teams from each group will qualify for the play-offs to determine the other four qualifiers.
Joint winners of the previous edition in 2015, Scotland will kickstart the event when they play Singapore in the first match of the tournament on October 18 at the ICC Academy Ground in Dubai. Also, the top ranked side in the event, the Scots go in to the event having won their last warm up game against Ireland by one run.
The Irish too, who are a Test playing nation now look very formidable going in to the event – old guards like Kevin O’Brien, Paul Stirling, George Dockrell, Boyd Rankin make them an envied outfit and they will kickstart proceedings in Abu Dhabi against Hong Kong on the opening day too.
Netherlands, on the other hand – having shared this trophy with Scotland four years ago, will play ICC World Cup Semi Finalists from 2003 – Kenya also on the opening day. The Dutch stuttered in their warm up games, losing to Ireland and Oman but come to the tournament and with experienced players like Ryan ten Doeschate and Roelof van der Merwe. Kenya too, had forgettable outings in the warm ups, losing to both Jersey and Canada but under Shem Ngoche’s leadership, they would seek a change of fortunes.
Oman, a team many believe to be a dark horse leading up to the event have now won six of their last six T20I fixtures. That run includes the two warm up fixtures in the UAE and the Duleep Mendis and Avishkar Salvi coached outfit would really be high on confidence when they begin their campaign against hosts UAE at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi in what will be the final match of the opening day.
The other six teams in the tournament - Bermuda, Canada, Jersey, Namibia, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea will begin their campaigns the following day.
The group stages of the the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier will end on 27 October and the the play-offs will be played on 29 and 30 October. The semi-finals will be held on 1 November while the third-place match and the final are on 2 November.
Those six qualifying teams will join the top 10 teams in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Rankings as on 31 December 2018 – Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia.