International cricket tournament
Cricket tournament
The 2017 Desert T20 Challenge [ 1] was an international Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket tournament that was held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi from 14 to 20 January 2017.[ 2] [ 3] The eight Associate Members of the International Cricket Council that have T20I status were scheduled to take part.[ 2] However, Papua New Guinea declined to participate and were replaced by Namibia (who did not have T20I status at the time).[ 4] Therefore, matches with Namibia were played as Twenty20 matches.
The fixtures for the tournament were confirmed by the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) in December 2016.[ 5] The eight teams were split into two groups of four teams, with Afghanistan, Ireland, Namibia and the United Arab Emirates in Group A and Netherlands, Scotland, Oman and Hong Kong in Group B.[ 5] The semi-finals and final of the tournament took place at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on 20 January.[ 6]
Afghanistan and Ireland qualified from Group A and Scotland and Oman qualified from Group B for the finals stage of the tournament.[ 7] Afghanistan beat Ireland by 10 wickets in the final match to win the tournament.[ 8] [ 9]
Teams
Squads
Before the tournament started, both Andrew Balbirnie and Stuart Thompson were ruled out of Ireland's squad due to injury. They were replaced by Stuart Poynter and Lorcan Tucker respectively.[ 17]
Fixtures
Group A
Qualified to Finals
Ireland won the toss and elected to bat.
Namibia won the toss and elected to bat.
Colin Peake (Namibia) made his T20 debut.
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to field.
Zahoor Khan (UAE) made his T20I debut.
Namibia won the toss and elected to bat.
Ireland won the toss and elected to bat.
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat.
Naveen-ul-Haq (Afg) made his T20 debut.
Group B
Qualified to Finals
Oman 146/7 (20 overs)
v
Oman won the toss and elected to field.
Netherlands won the toss and elected to field.
Hong Kong won the toss and elected to bat.
Oman won the toss and elected to bat.
Chris Sole (Sco) made his T20I debut.
Finals
1st Semi-Final 20 January 2017
10.00
Scorecard
Oman 149/8 (20 overs)
v
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to field.
2nd Semi-Final 20 January 2017
14.30
Scorecard
Scotland won the toss and elected to field.
Ireland won the toss and elected to bat.
Nawroz Mangal captained Afghanistan in his final match, with the regular captain Asghar Stanikzai also playing in the match.[ 19]
Mohammad Shahzad (Afg) became first person to score two half-centuries in two separate international matches on the same day.[ 20]
Statistics
Most runs
Most wickets
Player
Matches
Innings
Wickets
Overs
Econ.
Ave.
BBI
S/R
4WI
5WI
Jacob Mulder
5
5
10
18
5.66
10.20
4/16
10.80
1
0
Rashid Khan
5
5
9
16.2
3.61
6.55
3/4
10.80
0
0
Amir Hamza
4
4
7
16
4.81
11.00
2/15
13.70
0
0
Mohammad Nabi
5
5
7
16.2
5.69
13.28
4/10
14.00
1
0
Bilal Khan
4
4
7
13.5
8.45
16.71
3/18
11.80
0
0
Source: ESPN Cricinfo [ 22]
See also
References
External links
September 2016 October 2016 November 2016 December 2016 January 2017 February 2017 March 2017 Ongoing