ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

pressure for longer periods. Canada were easily beaten in four of their matches and The Netherlands in three. Both of these countries did well when at full strength but they were seriously affected by player availability. In contrast, Namibia and Kenya were able to field their strongest sides in most of their matches. Ireland were also affected by the absence of key players during the English county season, but they had greater depth than the other countries and their replacement players performed well. With so many mismatches it is not surprising that both batsmen and bowlers performed well. There were ten totals over 400, the highest being 578 for 4 by Ireland. Ireland were responsible for five of the ten highest team scores. They were also responsible for the lowest team score, 69 against Namibia. Canada made the only other score below 100. Thirty-three centuries were made, four by Andre Botha (Ireland) and three by Saqib Ali (United Arab Emirates). These two also made the highest number of runs but with positions reversed, Saqib Ali scoring 690 to Botha’s 643. The highest innings of the competition and the outstanding display of batting was the 230 by Gerrie Snyman (Namibia) with 22 fours and 11 sixes; it was also 82% of his team’s innings total. There were thirty-one instances of bowlers taking five or more wickets in an innings with Kola Burger (Namibia) achieving this haul four times and Dwayne Leverock (Bermuda) and Hiren Varaiya (Kenya), three times. The best performance was the seven for 42 by Sam Welsh (Canada). Kola Burger also took the most wickets in the competition with 37, followed by Leverock 34, Varaiya 30 and Peter Connell (Ireland) 28, the latter performing the hat-trick against The Netherlands on his first-class debut. Ireland were easily the best side of the competition. Not only did they have the highest runs scored per wicket, at 47.50, but they had the lowest runs conceded per wicket, at 20.98. The runs scored per wicket were also 1.6 times better than any other side could manage. This was largely due to the fact that only in four out of their eleven innings did the whole side need to bat. Their performance thus reflected the strength of the top and middle order. Given their superiority it was surprising that they almost did not make the final and failed to finish top of the league, a situation arising from a failure of the points system to reflect the true strength of the teams when results are dictated by the weather. There was little to choose between Scotland, Namibia and Kenya, with Namibia reaching the final on the strength of their bowling (conceding only 21.49 runs per wicket taken) and their ability to convert close matches into victories. There was also little to choose between the performances of the bottom four countries although, as noted above, The Netherlands were superior when they were able to field their best side, particularly when Ryan ten Doeschate was available, but otherwise there was a lack of quality in depth. The United Arab Emirates improved considerably in their proficiency on the previous year in both batting and bowling. In Saqib Ali, they had one of the most consistent batsmen of the tournament. With David Hemp rarely available, Bermuda showed a substantial drop in their batting proficiency but Dwayne Leverock had an excellent tournament and led a marked improvement in his country’s bowling. The differences between the top and bottom four teams were most marked in their bowling. Whereas the top four countries all conceded fewer than 26 runs per wicket taken, all the bottom four conceded over 30. Apart from Ireland, all the teams averaged fewer than 30 runs per wicket. The Cricket Boards of all eight countries were aware that their performances to date did not qualify them for participation in the next competition, which would depend on how well they performed in the World Cup Qualifying contest in April 2009. 114 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007-08