Beyond the Boundary!

Jersey and Guernsey continued to head for a final day showdown as they both won again on day two of the European Championship Division Two tournament.

Jersey beat France by 67 runs, whilst hosts Guernsey picked up a Duckworth/Lewis assisted eight wicket win over Germany. Gibraltar beat Croatia by 5 runs in a close third match of the day.

You can follow the tournament over at the official site.

Boyd Rankin returns to the Ireland squad for the first time since the World Cup for their forthcoming ODI series against Kenya. He has been released by Warwickshire, for whom he made his county championship return recently, for the first two games of the three match series.

Skipper William Porterfield and Gary Wilson have been released for all three matches, whilst Niall O’Brien is only available for the first. Eoin Morgan is, predictably, unavailable for all three matches, meaning he will have missed every single Ireland match this season, only playing in the pre-season ODI series in Bangladesh.

Kyle McCallan is set to gain a quite phenomonal 200th cap in the second ODI, assuming the weather holds up. The full squad can be found here.

Canada have beaten Bermuda by 25 runs ion the first match of a tri-series that also involves the West Indies. With the Windies expected to win both of their pool matches, this will almost certainly put Canada in Sunday’s final.

Full report here.

Day one of the European Championship Second Division took place today in Guernsey, and Jersey and Guernsey both started with wins, as did France.

Guernsey cruised to a seven wicket win over Gibraltar, Jersey beat Croatia by six wickets in a low scoring match, and France beat Germany by 41 runs.

Speaking on BBC Radio Five Live Sports Xtra during their coverage of the Scotland v England ODI today, Cricket Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith seemed to indicate that the UAE will no longer be hosting the World Cup Qualifier next year.

This begs the question as to exactly where it will be moved to. The requirements for hosting are such that a country needs at least six grounds with turf wickets and decent facilities, at least two of which need to be ODI approved.

The only associate countries (other than the UAE) that currently fit that description are Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Kenya and Malaysia. Ireland can be ruled out after hosting the 2005 tournament, and Scotland are pencilled in for the 2013 tournament. Hosting in Canada brings with it the problems of getting counties to release players as it would have to take place during the English season, so that would suggest Malaysia or Kenya to host.

The rain that seems to have been following associate cricket around recently has claimed another victim as today’s Scotland v England ODI was rained off in the third over of England’s innings. Earlier, Scotland had recovered from 11/3, after county batsmen Kyle Coetzer and Navdeep Poonia were dismissed for ducks, to score 156/9 from their 44 overs thanks to a fine knock of 60 from Gavin Hamilton.

This was Scotland’s last match of the year, and they will now begin preparation for the World Cup Qualifiers, currently scheduled for April in the UAE.

The Netherlands have won the second ODI against Bermuda after the first match was washed out. Ryan ten Doeschate was the man of the match after taking 3/35 and scoring 47 from 46 balls, including two sixes from one Dwayne Leverock over.

Eric Szwarczynski top scored for the Dutch with 55 as they won by six wickets after chasing their Duckworth/Lewis adjusted target down in the 37th over.

The Netherlands will next be in action in a weeks time when they play Kenya in the Intercontinental Cup, whilst we will wait two weeks for the next Bermuda action - a tri-series against Canada and the West Indies in Toronto, for which they should, theoretically, have the services of David Hemp.

Apologies for the lack of updates the last few days, but as I said previously, I’ve been up in Glasgow at the European Under-19 Championship. The tournament was sadly affected by the rain, with only the first days matches completed. Scotland won on net run rate. It was certainly interesting to see a tournament from “behind the scenes”, even if there wasn’t much cricket. There’s a photo of me on the official site if you want to see what I look like.

Rain has also affected other matches. The first ODI between the Netherlands and Bermuda was washed out, as were the first days of the Ireland v Canada and Scotland v Kenya Intercontinental Cup matches.
One event not spoiled by the rain was the European Under-15 Championship in Jersey, which Scotland have also won, beating Ireland by 16 runs in today’s final.

The second day of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier is underway in Belfast, and Bermuda played Scotland in the first match.

Bermuda scored 99/7 in their innings, a poor score due to some tight bowling from Scotland, especially from Dewald Nel, who took 3/12 from his four overs, including two maidens. Steven Outerbridge top scored for Bermuda with 37. Scotland, though they lost two early wickets to George O’Brien, won by eight wickets, Colin Smith and Navdeep Poonia with unbeaten scores of 46 and 38 respectively.

Canada played Kenya in the second match of the day, and continued the low scoring, making just 91 before being bowled out. Thomas Odoyo bowled brilliantly, going for just 14 runs from his four overs. Kenya scored slowly, but still won by four wickets, Kennedy Otieno top scoring with 40.

Ireland played Bermuda in the final match of the group stage and scored on 41/4 from eight overs before the rain came. The game was reduced to nine overs, and Ireland took their score to 43/7. George O’Brien was the pick of the Bermuda bowlers with 2/13 from his four overs. Bermuda lost wickets quickly when they batted, Peter Connell pick of the Irish bowlers with 3/8.

So in tomorrow’s semi-finals, Ireland will play Kenya and the Netherlands will play Scotland. You can follow the excellent ball by ball commentary on the official site.

Just a quick note that I’m heading up to Glasgow tomorrow where I’ll be at the European Under-19 Championship, so posting may be a little light for a few days.

A couple of weeks ago, the ICC issued a self-congratulatory press release about how they were reaffirming the mandatory release rules. And now, Eoin Morgan has withdrawn from the Ireland squad to play for Middlesex in a Pro40 game, Navdeep Poonia was playing for Warwickshire instead of Scotland yesterday, and Kyle Coetzer will be playing for Durham against Bangladesh A today, instead of for Scotland.

So, when will the ICC realise that they need to change the mandatory release rules, not just “reaffirm” them?