Oh Canada!

Hello all, hope alls well! It’s a headline day today with Ireland taking on Canada in New York but we have a game from yesterday to have a look at so let’s star there!

Yesterday’s late game was between Africa’s finest Namibia and our northern cousins Scotland. NAM and SCT are both associate nations, meaning that they play a lot of T20 cricket during on going cycles of qualification for world tournaments. These games can be bloody exciting and this one didn’t disappoint.

The mighty Namibia won the toss and opted to bat, hoping to bat Scotland out of the game in the first innings, slightly risky strategy though, Scotland’s bowlers aren’t to be sniffed at. Brad wheal made that point when he dismissed Namibia’s strike batter Kotze for a duck. The Namibian eagles had a bit of a play around with their batting order for this game and it didn’t seem to do them a lot of good. Other than Captain Gurhard Erasmus who fought for a half century, Namibia struggled to make great gains with the bat. Even the great David Wiese only managed 14 as the Eagles reached 155 for 9.

That score is defendable and Namibia have some quality bowlers but both teams would have gone into the break knowing anything could happen.

These are two very well matched teams and the second innings reflected that with the score card looking very familiar to that of Namibia’s. The Thistles opening batter George Munsey was out for just 7 and as in the first half, wickets kept tumbling on a tricky Barbadian wicket. When all was said and done though the Flower of Scotland had enough to win out over the proud Eagles getting Scotland their first winning points of the competition.

Today’s game was between Associate nation Canada and full member test playing nation Ireland. Ireland were granted Test statues in 2017 along side Afghanistan making them the equal youngest of the of the 12 nations within the highest echelons of cricket. Test status is only granted to a nation once a number of requirements are met, such as being able to maintain a certain level of play. However, despite there not being in theory there is in fact a hierarchy in test playing nations. England, India and Australia regularly occupy the top 3 nations. South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan jostle just below. West Indies Sri Lanka and Bangladesh make up the third tier and Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan float around the bottom.

As I say, in theory this is a club of equals but the truth is England play India and Australia fair more regularly than we do any one else. We have fairly regularly series against New Zealand and Pakistan while we’re in that part of the world. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,West Indies and SA come round every few years. We play Ireland occasionally because of our proximity. I can’t remember us ever playing Afghanistan or Zimbabwe.

The story is much the same for the other Test nations, they mostly stay in their own lane, which means the smaller Test nations don’t get chance to grow. The truth is if we had a 3 test match series against Zimbabwe this summer we would absolutely rout them, the ECB seemingly doesn’t think it’s worth it. Well, I’m a cricket fan and I can tell you, I like to see England win games of cricket, a 3-0 win over Zimbabwe sounds great to me. Plus it would be much needed income and experience for Zimbabwe. If a few more of the bigger sides gave them a series then they would start to become more competitive……..that’s how the system works!

So getting back to the point. Although Ireland are a full member test playing nation, it didn’t shock me when Canada beat them today to get there first points of the campaign. Canada, in this format, look every bit as strong as the teams around them. Let’s give Ireland a few more test match’s.

Tomorrow,

New Zealand Vs Afghanistan

Sri Lanka Vs Bangladesh

And…….

England Vs Australia.

All the best,

Nick