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Three squads vie for second ICC CWC 2015 qualifer spot

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The Netherlands is currently placed second on the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Championship points table, and has played its last matches of the competition. However, with both Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hot on its heels, the side may need to wait until the final match of the competition on 4 October to see if it will qualify. Both Afghanistan and the UAE are yet to play their final round fixtures of the WCL Championship, against Namibia and Kenya respectively, and both could leapfrog the Netherlands into second place.

Should Afghanistan secure a 2-0 victory against Kenya on 2 and 4 October at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, it will move ahead of Netherlands by one point to snatch the second direct qualification spot.

However, should Afghanistan drop points against the sixth-ranked team and the UAE win both its matches against Namibia, to be played on 27 and 29 September in Sharjah, the UAE will leapfrog into second position, with the same number of points as Netherlands (18) but ahead on number of wins.

Scotland had been in contention for the crucial second position, but failed to automatically qualify earlier this month when it lost both ODIs against Ireland, who had already won the tournament and become the first team to earn direct qualification to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in July. However, Scotland can still qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 through the 10-team ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2014, which will be staged from 7 January to 2 February in New Zealand, with the top two sides completing the 14-team line-up in the ICC’s flagship 50-over event.

It will be a nail-biting finish, and all the upcoming matches between UAE and Namibia, and Afghanistan and Kenya will be streamed live at www.icc-cricket.com and on the ICC YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/CricketICC .

Pepsi ICC WCL Championship (remaining seventh round fixtures):

UAE v Namibia
To be streamed live at www.icc-cricket.com and on the ICC YouTube channel

  • 27 Sept – 1st 50-over match, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah
  • 29 Sept – 2nd 50-over match, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah

Afganistan v Kenya
To be streamed live at www.icc-cricket.com and on the ICC YouTube channel

  • 2 Oct – 1st ODI, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah
  • 4 Oct – 2nd ODI, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah