ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2015

vacant places are taken by Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea, so the full line-up for the 2015-17 Cup will be: Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Namibia, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and the United Arab Emirates. It will be seen from the table, for what it is worth at such an early stage, that Netherlands enjoys a narrow lead, but that Ireland and Namibia are poised just behind, each with a game in hand over the Dutch. There is more to play for than in previous editions of the Cup: the ICC has announced that in 2017, the lowest-ranked Test side will be required to play a series of four five-day matches (not counting as Tests) against the Intercontinental winners. If the latter prevail, they will be rewarded with Test status. Finally, the 2015 Irish Inter-Provincial Championship, which is not first-class but is contested on a two-innings basis with three days allowed for each match, was severely affected by the weather, which completely washed out one of the six scheduled matches and caused four more to be left as draws. Leinster beat Northern in the only match to reach a result, and thus became Champions for the third time in the three seasons this competition has been held. North Western were runners-up. (JCB) ICC Intercontinental Cup 2015-2017: Interim table P W WLF L LWF DWF DLF ND A TL Pts Quot 20 14 0 6 9 3 3 10 1 Netherlands 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 26 0.927 2 Ireland 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 2.112 3 Namibia 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 1.723 4 Papua New Guinea 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 1.336 5 Scotland 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 4 13 1.115 6 Afghanistan 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 7 0.579 7 Hong Kong 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.580 8 United Arab Emirates 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.474 The table is shown as at the conclusion of Netherlands v Scotland, 8-11 September 2015 608 Matches in 2015