A game too far?

Posted by John Winn

The ICC T20 qualifiers completed the group stages yesterday but after resting today all the sixteen teams have at least one more match to play before the competition finishes on Saturday. The form established in the first week has continued with Afghanistan and Namibia topping their respective groups with 100% records. These two teams will meet tomorrow at 10:00 GMT in the '1st Qualifying Final' with the winners assured of competing in Sri Lanka in September. Meanwhile the second and third placed teams in each group,Netherlands, Scotland, Canada and Ireland will be involved in 'Elimination Semi-Finals' and on Friday 'The Elimination Final' which will decide who plays the loser of tomorrow's match between Afghanistan and Namibia, come on keep up! Put another way, Ireland probably the favourite to emerge from the group of four, will need to beat a) Canada b) Netherlands or Scotland and c) Namibia or Afghanistan to grab the last available place in Sri Lanka.Whoever qualifies from this maelstrom will know they have been in a tournament.
The Second Qualifying Final takes place on Saturday morning but just in case anybody feels short changed it will be followed by Match 72 (and remember this only began on March 13th), described as 'The Tournament Final', between the winners of the two Qualifying Finals which could be a repeat of tomorrow's game between Afghanistan and Namibia, or there again it might not.
What of the other ten teams, those who did not finish in the top three in their groups, bags packed and heading for home? Not quite, they all have at least one more game. The two wooden spoonists Denmark and Oman compete for a ladle in the 15th-16th playoff, while there are also playoffs for all positions between 5th and 14th.,which will decide a ranking for all sixteen teams.
If you have got this far then you deserve something much simpler and much closer to home. The draw for the National Club Championship, sponsored this year by Kingfisher Beer, was made earlier this week and matches in Groups 1 and 2 include Great Ayton v Scarborough, Harrogate v Beverley, Hanging Heaton v Elsecar, New Farnley v York, Sheffield United v Townville and Marton v Driffield. Matches to be played on Sunday April 29th. Holders Shrewsbury, who beat Cambridge Granta in last year's final travel to Stafford to begin their defence.The full draw is available on the ECB site, just put Kingfisher Cup into a search engine.