ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

ICC Intercontinental Shield 2009-10 QUALIFYING TABLE Played Won Lost Drawn Abandoned First inns Total lead points Namibia 3 2 1 0 0 3 46 United Arab Emirates 3 2 0 1 0 1 37 Uganda 3 1 1 1 0 2 29 Bermuda 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 Scoring system: Win = 14 points. Tie = 7 points. First-innings lead = 6 points. Tie on first innings = 3 points. Draw in a match in which ten or more hours’ play is lost to the weather = 7 points. Draw in a match in which less than ten hours’ play is lost to the weather = 3 points. Match abandoned =10 points. Teams finishing level on points are separated first by the most number of outright wins and then by the most first-innings leads and then by the higher net runs-per-wicket ratio. FINAL Namibia beat United Arab Emirates by six wickets The ICC Intercontinental Shield was staged in 2009-10 in parallel with the ICC Intercontinental Cup as a way of maintaining first-class cricket for Bermuda, Namibia and the United Arab Emirates, all of whom failed to qualify for the Cup competition under the revised regulations. Uganda were added as a fourth team because of their tenth position in the ICC World Cup Qualifying competition in April 2009. They thus reappeared at first-class level after dropping out when the system of geographical groupings for the Intercontinental Cup ended in 2006. The same points system was used as in the 2009-10 Intercontinental Cup with the top two teams meeting in a final. Namibia won the competition, beating the United Arab Emirates relatively easily after the latter suffered a disastrous batting collapse on the first morning of the final. The result was a disappointment for the Emirates who were playing in home conditions in Dubai; they had earlier beaten Namibia in Windhoek and, despite only finishing second, were unbeaten in the league. Overall, however, Namibia were clearly the best team in the competition with strengths in both batting and bowling, whereas the Emirates did not possess the bowlers to back up what was generally a powerful batting line-up. The win by the Emirates in Namibia was the result of a tremendous effort on the final day after Namibia had dominated the first three days. Uganda fared well without threatening to make the final. They had a useful bowling attack which proved economical, but their batting was inconsistent from one innings to the next. Nevertheless, they obtained first-innings lead in two out of their three matches. Bermuda fell away badly, losing all three matches despite playing two of them at home. By the end of the tournament, it was doubtful if they could be considered ‘first-class’. Not only did they finish the competition last but they failed to obtain any points. Namibia made the highest team total of the competition, 609 against Uganda. They also made the only other score above 500. There was only one other total above 400, made by the United Arab Emirates as they attempted a fightback in the final against Namibia. There were three totals under 100, two by Bermuda which included the lowest, 56 against the Emirates. The third was the 79 made in the first innings of the final by the United Arab Emirates. Twelve centuries were made, three by Craig Williams (Namibia), including one in each innings of the final, and two by Arshad Ali (United Arab Emirates). Not surprisingly, these two made the highest number of runs in the competition, 498 by Williams at an average of 124.50, and 451 by Arshad Ali, average 64.42. The highest individual score was 206 by Ewald Steenkamp (Namibia) which was the only double-century of the tournament. He was the only other player to score over 400 runs in total, 407 at an average of 101.75. Other scores over 150 were 160 not out by Saqib Ali (United Emirates) and 157 by Raymond van Schoor (Namibia). Steenkamp and van Schoor made their respective scores together in an opening partnership of 374 against Bermuda. Louis Klazinga 223