2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup
| Administrator(s) | International Cricket Council |
|---|---|
| Cricket format | First-class cricket |
| Tournament format(s) | Round-robin |
| Host(s) | Various (home and away) |
| Participants | 8 |
| Matches played | 29 |
The 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup is the seventh edition of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, an international first-class cricket tournament between leading associate members of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament is running from 2015 to 2017. It runs in parallel with the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship but with slightly different teams. As Ireland and Afghanistan have qualified for the ICC One Day International Championship ranking qualification process, they are replaced by Kenya and Nepal in the limited over event; however they continue to play the four-day event.
As a result of changes to the structure of international cricket announced by the ICC in January 2014, the winner of the 2015-17 Intercontinental Cup (and following editions of the tournament) will play four five-day matches against the bottom ranked Test nation (two home and two away matches), an event known as the 2018 ICC Test Challenge.[1][2][3][4] Should the winner of the Intercontinental Cup go on to win the ICC Test Challenge they will become the 11th Test nation.[5]
Teams
The following are the 8 teams participating in the competition based on the results from 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship, 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier & 2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two.
-
Ireland (1st in 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship) -
Afghanistan (2nd in 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship) -
Scotland (1st in 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier) -
United Arab Emirates (2nd in 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier) -
Hong Kong (3rd in 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier) -
Papua New Guinea (4th in 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier) -
Netherlands (1st in 2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two) -
Namibia (2nd in 2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two)
Preparations
Of the eight teams participating in the 2015-17 ICC Intercontinental Cup, only Papua New Guinea has never played a first-class match before.[6] Afghanistan, Ireland, Namibia, Scotland, The Netherlands and the UAE had all appeared before in the previous Intercontinental Cup of 2011-2013, while Hong Kong had last appeared in the 2005 Intercontinental Cup and last played in an international multi-day cricket tournament in late 2006 at the 2006/07 ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament.
Though never having played a first-class match, Papua New Guinea (PNG) have played two-day cricket in the South Australian Premier League in 2013 and 2014. Though finishing at the bottom of the league in both seasons, the experience seems to have hardened the team as they convincingly beat Hong Kong in a three-day match in Australia and one of PNG's openers admitted that participation in the league had been critical to exposing the players to multi-day cricket.[6]
Fixtures
The breakdown of fixtures is as follows:[7]
Points table
| Team | Pld | W | L | T | D | A | FI | Pts | Q |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 80 | 1.850 |
| Afghanistan | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 61 | 1.590 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 46 | 0.861 |
| Papua New Guinea | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 40 | 0.925 |
| Hong Kong | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 30 | 0.996 |
| Scotland | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 30 | 0.896 |
| Namibia | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 0.652 |
| United Arab Emirates | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.664 |
- Win – 14 points
- Tie – 7 points
- Draw (if more than 10 hours of play lost) – 7 points (otherwise 3 points)
- Abandoned without a ball bowled – 10 points
- First Innings lead (independent of final result) – 6 points (3 points each in case of a first innings tie)
Matches
Round 1
The fixtures for round one were announced on 5 May 2015.[8]
| 10–13 May 2015 Scorecard |
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- Namibia won the toss and elected to bat.
- Babar Hayat, Ehsan Nawaz, Haseeb Amjad, Roy Lamsam, Nizakat Khan, Skhawat Ali, Tanwir Afzal and Waqas Barkat (all Hong Kong) made their first-class debuts.
| 2–5 June 2015 Scorecard |
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| 2–5 June 2015 Scorecard |
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- Afghanistan won the toss and elected to field.
- No play was possible on day 1 due to rain. A wet outfield delayed the start of day 2 until 2pm. Rain delayed the start of day 3 until 2:50pm. Rain delayed the start of day 4 until after tea.
- Andrew Umeed (Sco) made his first-class debut.
| 16–19 June 2015 Scorecard |
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- Papua New Guinea won the toss and elected to field.
- Max O'Dowd (Ned), Charles Amini, Mahuru Dai, Willie Gavera, Vani Morea, Loa Nou, John Reva, Lega Siaka, Tony Ura, Assad Vala, Norman Vanua and Jack Vare (all PNG) made their first-class debuts.
- This was Papua New Guinea's maiden first-class match.[11]
Round 2
The fixtures for round two were announced in August 2015.[12]
| 8–11 September 2015 Scorecard |
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- Scotland won the toss and elected to field.
- No play was possible on day 1 due to a wet outfield.
- Rahil Ahmed and Ben Cooper (both Ned) made their first-class debuts.
| 11–14 November 2015 Scorecard |
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- Hong Kong won the toss and elected to bat.
- Aizaz Khan, Anshuman Rath, Christopher Carter, Kinchit Shah (Hong Kong); Yodhin Punja, Qais Farooq, Raja Adeel and Laxman Sreekumar (United Arab Emirates) all made their first-class debuts.
| 21–24 November 2015 Scorecard |
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- Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat.
- Zahir Khan (Afg), Sese Bau and Chad Soper (PNG) all made their first-class debuts.
Round 3
The fixtures for round three were announced in December 2015.[13]
| 21–24 January 2016 Scorecard |
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- No toss.
- No play was possible due to a wet outfield and waterlogged ground with the match abandoned without a ball bowled.[14]
| 21–24 January 2016 Scorecard |
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- United Arab Emirates won the toss and elected to bat.
- Farhan Ahmed, Mohammad Shahzad, Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Kaleem, Qadeer Ahmed and Saqlain Haider (United Arab Emirates) all made their first-class debuts.
- This was the first away win for the Netherlands in the Intercontinental Cup since they beat the UAE in January 2008.[15]
| 31 January–3 February 2016 Scorecard |
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- Papua New Guinea won the toss and elected to field.
- 21 overs were lost on Day 1 due to bad light and rain.[16]
- Niall O'Brien (Ire) took his 50th dismissal in Intercontinental Cup matches.[17]
Round 4
The fixtures for round four were announced in April 2016.[18][19]
| 29 July–1 August 2016 Scorecard |
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- Afghanistan won the toss and elected to field.
- Shane Snater (Ned) and Ihsanullah (Afg) both made their first-class debuts.
- Dawlat Zadran (Afg) took career-best match figures of 7/77.[20]
| 9–12 August 2016 Scorecard |
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- Scotland won the toss and elected to field.
- Play was delayed on Day 1 until 3pm due to a wet outfield.
- On Day 2 only seven overs of play were possible with play being abandoned for the day due to rain.[21]
- No play was possible on Day 3 and Day 4 due to rain.[21]
- Mark Watt and Chris Sole (Sco); Mohammed Qasim (UAE) all made their first-class debuts.
| 30 August–2 September 2016 Scorecard |
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- Ireland won the toss and elected to bat.
- Ehsan Khan, Ninad Shah, Tanveer Ahmed, Waqas Khan (HK) all made their first-class debuts.
- Nizakat Khan (HK) scored his maiden first-class century.[22]
| 16–19 October 2016 Scorecard |
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- Papua New Guinea won the toss and elected to bat.
- Dogodo Bau (Papua New Guinea) made his first-class debut.
- This was Papua New Guinea's first Intercontinental Cup match played at home.[23]
Round 5
The fixture between Afghanistan and Ireland was announced by Cricket Ireland in July 2016.[24]
| 28–31 March 2017 Scorecard |
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| 2017 [ Scorecard] |
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| 2017 [ Scorecard] |
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Round 6
| 2017 [ Scorecard] |
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| 2017 [ Scorecard] |
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| 2017 [ Scorecard] |
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| 2017 [ Scorecard] |
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Round 7
| 2017 [ Scorecard] |
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| 2017 [ Scorecard] |
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| 2017 [ Scorecard] |
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See also
References
- ↑ Brooks, Tim (14 April 2014). "Is the ICC Test Challenge really the Holy Grail?". All Out Cricket. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- ↑ "Associates to get a shot at Test cricket". ESPNcricinfo. 10 April 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- ↑ Wigmore, Tim (14 March 2014). "What do the ICC proposals mean for the Associates?". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
- ↑ Gollapudi, Nagraj (30 January 2014). "An 11th Test country?". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- ↑ "Contenders ready to kick-start Intercontinental Cup 2015-17". ICC. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
- 1 2 Meet Hanuabada's latest flagbearer - the rise of PNG's Lega Siaka by Tim Wigmore
- ↑ "ICC World Cricket League and Intercontinental Cup Fixtures announced". International Cricket Council. 14 February 2015. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
- ↑ "Namibia, Hong Kong to kick off Intercontinental Cup". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
- ↑ "Joyce double-ton puts Ireland in command". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Sports Media. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
- ↑ "Intercontinental Cup: Ireland's Ed Joyce hits record 229 v UAE". BBC Sport. BBC Sport. 3 June 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
- ↑ "Vala ton scripts historic win for Papua New Guinea". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Sports Media. 18 June 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
- ↑ "T20 Qualifier co-champs face off in I-Cup and WCL Championship". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ↑ "Ireland to meet PNG in third round". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
- ↑ "Intercontinental Cup: Scotland v Hong Kong abandoned due to rain". BBC Sport. BBC Sport. 23 January 2016. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
- ↑ "Dutch overcome Anwar ton to beat UAE". BBC Sport. ESPN Cricinfo. 23 January 2016. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
- ↑ "Intercontinental Cup: Ireland edge day one against Papua New Guinea". BBC Sport. BBC Sport. 31 January 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
- ↑ "Intercontinental Cup: Ireland top after beating Papua New Guinea". BBC Sport. BBC Sport. 3 February 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
- ↑ "Scotland to host UAE in August". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
- ↑ "Fixtures for Round 4 of ICC I-Cup and ICC WCL Championship announced". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
- ↑ "Zahir, Dawlat seal Afghanistan's innings win". ESPN Cricinfo. 30 July 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
- 1 2 "Rain has final say as teams split points". ESPN Cricinfo. 12 August 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
- ↑ "Murtagh's four-for gives Ireland top spot". ESPN Cricinfo. 2 September 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- ↑ "Vala ton sets up PNG win over Namibia". ESPN Cricinfo. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ↑ "Ireland And Afghanistan Confirm Nine Match Series". Cricket Ireland. Retrieved 25 July 2016.