Aberdeen (Scotland) Aberdeen (Scotland) 18.: The United States of America have given their Cricket World Cup qualification hopes an enormous boost following an amazing two-wicket win against Scotland in Aberdeen. With 22 to go from the nine final deliveries of Mannofield Park, Jaskaran Malhotra was in charge, and was able to keep the strike until the final over to win the match.Frustrated to find a winning strike on the penultimate ball Malhotra’s teammate Jessy Singh won the footrace against Safyaan Sharif with the Scottish quicks underarm throw not in time to push Singh out.
The win lifts the Americans over UAE in third position in the League 2 table, and in the automatic spot for qualification to next year’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier for India 2023.
Monank Patel’s team was able to secure points over UAE earlier in the Aberdeen tri-series, and again snuck home in the final over in a thrilling one-wicket win.The team picked up five points during the trip (two wins and an unresult), with the wash-out being the only point of the trip for UAE.
Calum MacLeod’s score of 133 not out of his 144 ball in the loss to USA could be in unsuccessful for the Scots but the right-hander’s dazzling performance of form proved to be the cause of three wins at home which made the Scots odds-on favourites to win the table.
With scores of 76 and 77 in the two games against UAE in the tri-series, the score of MacLeod’s 117 in the first encounter with USA was a big help to the hosts to beat 296.
The Scots are four points behind from the top spot Oman although Oman is in first place, and the Omanis have played in all 36 games in the tournament.This means that only three victories in the last eight matches played by Richie Berrington’s team could see them will finish on at the top of the group.
As the USA and UAE are currently battling for third place, Namibia (fifth, 18 points) have 10 and 8 matches in hand between the two teams, respectively, and can enjoy a number of home games for their final charge.
Nepal (sixth 17 points) also have the advantage however they must get going under the new coach Manoj Prabhakar.
The top three teams at the end of League 2 automatically progress to the Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe next year, where they will face the teams that are bottom five from Cricket World Cup Super League.
The top four of League 2 are not out of the race, however they will have to go through a six-team playoff.they will be joined by top teams of every Challenge League group.
In the last week, Jersey has secured their spot in the playoffs after winning Challenge League Group A, beating off competition from Hong Kong and Uganda.The other group is where Canada are top of the list as teams prepare for their final five games in Malaysia in the coming months.
Brief Scores: Scotland 249/8 in 50 overs MacLeod 133 not out, Leask 41, Netravalkar 54/2, Steven Taylor 51/2 lost by two wickets to USA 250/8 in 49.5 overs.Monank Patel 50, Aaron Jones 62, Gavin Main 44/2.
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