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Match Facts

February 25, Nagpur
Start time: 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT)
Where are the runs hidden?•Associated Press

Big Picture

It’s almost as if there is malicious glee that follows Australia’s so-called decline. Ashes lost? Yay! Ricky Ponting accidentally breaks a TV set? What irresponsible behaviour! Australia are struggling against spinners? Wonderful! In some ways, it’s human nature to gloat at Goliath’s fall. At the centre of the storm is Ponting, trying hard to regain his batting form, trying to hide the Ashes blot in his CV with another World-Cup triumph. In Australia’s previous victorious campaigns, Ponting has led from the front with the bat but this time a question mark hovers around that possibility. Australia’s campaign in this edition of the World Cup could well revolve around Ponting’s form at No. 3. He got couple of hard-earned fifties in the warm-up games and looked to be slowly progressing towards recovering his touch.The bowling is led by another ageing campaigner, Brett Lee, who is scripting a remarkable comeback. Much has been written about Australia’s attack which stands out for its naked violence. The feeling is that they will either scythe through the opposition or fail to control the run-flow on these batting tracks.On the other side, there is New Zealand, who are playing this game under the grim background of the Christchurch earthquake. “For a lot of the guys, coming to training has allowed them to take their mind off things,” Daniel Vettori said. New Zealand have had a poor build-up to the World Cup, but they started the tournament with a crushing win against Kenya. Their batting line-up looks quite strong with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor and Scott Styris and it’s their bowling which looks a bit iffy. Will their seamers be able to adapt to these tracks? Much will depend on spinners Vettori and Nathan McCullum, who is likely to open the bowling with the new ball. New Zealand will hope that the pitch will take some turn and they can poke at Australia’s vulnerability against spin on these slow tracks. It should be an interesting battle.

Form guide

(Most recent first for the last five completed games)
Australia: WWWWL
New Zealand: LWLLL

Watch out for…

Shane Watson’s revival began here in India during the inaugural edition of the IPL. He adapted brilliantly and transformed himself into a smashing opener and took that form and confidence to the international stage. On Indian tracks, he likes to get on the front foot and scythe through the line. With Brad Haddin yet to learn the art of converting starts and with Ponting yet to get a regain his form completely, much will depend on Watson to set a solid platform.Nathan McCullum is not a bowler who causes sleepless nights to batsmen but he could play a crucial role if Vettori decides to give him the new ball. He is accurate and spins the ball just enough to pose some problems. How he handles the pressure of bowling against Watson, Haddin and co might well decide how New Zealand fare with the ball.

Team news

New Zealand have chosen their playing 12. Kyle Mills, Kane Williamson, and Luke Woodcock will miss out.New Zealand (probable): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Jesse Ryder, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 James Franklin, 6 Scott Stryis, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Hamish Bennett, 11 Tim SoutheeAustralia (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 David Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Steve Smith, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Jason Krezja, 10 Brett Lee, 11 Shaun Tait..

Stats and trivia

• Ricky Ponting is the player who has played the most World Cup games. He has played 40 matches, going past Glenn McGrath’s 39 appearances. He has also led Australia 23 times, the second-highest by any World Cup captain, after New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming (27). Australia are yet to lose a World Cup game under Ponting.
• In the game against Zimbabwe, Ponting became the fourth batsman in the World Cup to be run out on five occasions. The others are: Inzamam-ul-Haq (9), Asanka Gurusinha (6) and Javed Miandad (5)
• Australia have faced New Zealand 123 times and have won 84 games. In India, these two teams have played against each other seven times, with Australia victorious in all seven.
  

  Quotes

  “Nothing really changes from any team you’re playing in the subcontinent, you try and bowl straight at the wickets and you know you’re going to have to score a lot of runs. There’s no mystery to what we’re going to try to do, but the key when you come up against these big teams and big players is having the presence of mind to execute time and time again. That’s the toughest thing when you’re coming up against good players.”

West Ham United have gone through this latest Premier League season with Michail Antonio as their only predominant centre-forward.

Having sold Sebastien Haller to Ajax back in the 2021 January transfer window, the Hammers have not been able to bring in a replacement striker.

Another attacker that the east London club sold in recent memory is Marko Arnautovic.

After scoring 22 goals in 65 appearances for West Ham across all competitions, the Austrian moved to China in the 2019 summer transfer window.

Now that the upcoming summer transfer window is on the horizon, it seems as though the London Stadium outfit have the chance to bring a new version of Arnautovic to the club and add a bit of depth to their attack.

According to journalist Christian Falk, West Ham are interested in signing Union Berlin and former Liverpool striker Taiwo Awoniyi.

With 40 appearances under his belt for the German club across all competitions so far this season, the 24-year-old has found the net 18 times and provided four assists.

This shows how much of a prolific goalscoring threat he is becoming and backs up why he was described as a “dangerous” player by Steffen Baumgart.

In comparison to Arnautovic, who has scored 12 goals in 29 Serie A appearances for his current club Bologna this season, Awoniyi has had just two more shots on target than the former Hammers star as well as the same number of big chances.

This highlights just how similar the duo are in terms of their prowess in front of goal.

The 24-year-old, however, has been able to rack up a higher average of shots on target per 90 minutes (1.2) in this campaign, showing that he is more clinical in terms of his attempts at goal than the Bologna attacker (0.96).

It isn’t just in terms of offensive prowess where the pair are similar, however, with the duo progressing the ball at a similar rate too. Arnautovic has registered progressive passing yardage of 53.7 per 90 and 28.1 progressive carries per 90 minutes with the ball at his feet.

Awoniyi, in comparison, has managed 54.4 progressive passing yards and 24.1 progressive carries. Furthermore, they have both completed 77% of their short passes throughout 2021/22 via FB Ref.

With all of this in mind, securing a deal for Awoniyi should be at the top of GSB’s priority list when it comes to incoming transfers this summer.

Having a reported price tag of £21m, this could be a great piece of business if the east London club were able to get their hands on the former Liverpool starlet and he’s able to continue his development as a deadly goalscorer.

In other news: WHU plot bid for 42-cap ace with an “instinct for goals”, he’s better than Antonio

Despite a winless tour, Zimbabwe have generally committed themselves admirably in South Africa – the Benoni debacle aside – and team captain Elton Chigumbura insisted that the experience of playing top-level opponents would be helpful as Zimbabwe seek to

Liam Brickhill in Benoni22-Oct-2010

Despite a winless tour, Zimbabwe have generally committed themselves admirably in South Africa – the Benoni debacle aside – and team captain Elton Chigumbura insisted that the experience of playing top-level opponents would be helpful as Zimbabwe seek to continue their development.”It’s been a positive series for us, despite the results, especially on the batting front,” Chigumbura told ESPNcricinfo. “Today was just a bad day for us all round. But for the tour as a whole, it’s been a positive thing for us because now we know where we are.”Zimbabwe may well have pushed South Africa a little harder had Chigumbura been in better form, but he struggled with both bat and ball in the one-dayers, managing 37 runs in three innings and picking up just two wickets for 129 runs in 16 overs. His struggles with the ball, in particular, contributed to a wider malaise in Zimbabwe’s bowling and the visitors’ seamers struggled to make an impression.”There’s plenty of room for improvement, especially in our bowling,” conceded Chigumbura. “We just need to get our skills to the top level, which has been the biggest let-down of the whole tour. We still have lots of work to do when it comes to control in our bowling. We are alright in the field, but our execution with the ball is where we’re not getting it right.”Chigumbura suggested that a preponderance of flat, batsman-friendly wickets had exposed Zimbabwe’s frailties rather more harshly than might have been the case if conditions had been more suited to seam and swing. “That’s the big difference,” he said.”If you play on flat wickets your margin of error is so small, and that’s when your real skills come into play. Our skills on flat wickets are not yet where we want them to be, and that’s something we need to work on with the World Cup coming up in the subcontinent and our tour to Bangladesh.”Zimbabwe’s next assignment is a trip to Bangladesh. Although the fixture list has not yet been finalised, the tour will give them vital experience in conditions similar to what they’ll encounter at the World Cup in February.”It’s going to be good to be playing Bangladesh in their sort of conditions. In a way it was also good to play against top level opposition on flat decks here, so hopefully when we go to Bangladesh our skill level will have gone up and we’ll have a better understanding of the importance of control in our bowling. I have been following their series against New Zealand, they’ve been playing very well. You know what to expect from them – they’re going to use their spinners to attack – so when we go home we’re going to be working on playing spin and also on our bowling. But our batting is good at the moment.”A noticeable omission from Zimbabwe’s squad on this tour was that of Ray Price. Since Zimbabwe’s series against Bangladesh in January last year, Price has picked up 49 wickets at just 25.46 – and that average drops to 23.73 in the 17 games Zimbabwe have won in that time – and Chigumbura suggested his absence had been keenly felt.”We missed Ray price on this tour. Pricey plays a really big role in the team. Unfortunately his father isn’t well so he wasn’t with us this time, but hopefully when we go to Bangladesh he’ll be with us and he’ll help a great deal on the bowling side.”

After walloping India Green in the last league game, India Blue repeated the dose in the final to win the Challenger Trophy in emphatic fashion in Indore

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Oct-2010
ScorecardTanmay Srivastava cracked a well-paced ton•Getty ImagesAfter walloping India Green in the last league game, India Blue repeated the dose in the final to win the Challenger Trophy in emphatic fashion in Indore.The game had a sense of déjà vu from start to finish: Tanmay Srivastava, opening in place of Shreevats Goswami who had fallen for a duck in the previous game, almost suffered the same fate when he edged Dhawal Kulkarni down the leg side in the opening over. Naman Ojha, however, failed to hold on to the offering and Srivastava was on his way. Shikhar Dhawan began aggressively once again, but it was Srivastava who took control with a well-paced century. After the inevitable lull in the middle overs, Manoj Tiwary once again launched a late assault to leave India Green gasping.Dhawan began the fireworks, pulling Kulkarni for six in the fifth over, and slamming him for three consecutive fours in the seventh. Srivastava was more watchful, feeling his way to 17 at the ten-over mark. Abhimanyu Mithun removed Dhawan in the 12th over, and in the process stalled the momentum of the innings . Ajinkya Rahane, who had been in top form coming into the game, scratched around to score seven off 22 balls, as India Green threatened to rein things in. Yuvraj Singh could not make an impression either and his exit in the 26th over left India Blue struggling at 118 for 3.Srivastava, however, had reached his half-century by now, and was about to turn the tide along with Tiwary. The pair laid the platform with a mixture of deft placement smart running before opening up in the 40th over. Srivastava brought up his ton with three successive boundaries off Mithun and the pair took the batting Powerplay in the next over. Srivastava, however, could not cash in and was stumped off Ashwin. There was no stopping Tiwary, though, as he accelerated with mathematical precision in the final ten. With wickets falling at the other end, he kept the flag fluttering with a boundary each in the 43rd, 46th and 49th overs. He smashed Mithun for a six and a four in the final over before perishing for 84 in search for the final flourish. Piyush Chawla finished the innings by paddle-scooping Mithun for six more, setting India Green a daunting chase under lights.Their response was meeker than yesterday’s, as RP Singh and Chawla bullied them with regular wickets. Robin Uthappa briefly threatened to repair the innings, but his exit for 30 signaled the end of the game as a contest. The final rites were administered in the 37th over as India Green folded for 147. Their captain, S Badrinath, later noted that his side has conceded 30 runs too many, but in reality, the gap between the two sides was much wider than that.

ScorecardHeavy cloud and persistent rain ruled out any play on the third day•Getty Images

After rain washed out the entire third day’s play at Old Trafford, Nottinghamshire’s chances of winning the Championship title now rest on the hope that Lancashire can be convinced to play a shortened game on the fourth day, with both sides needing to forfeit an innings, in order to engineer a result.If Somerset lose to Durham, Nottinghamshire could also sneak to the title if they get nine points by scoring 400 – they are currently 89 for 2 – and then taking three Lancashire wickets and drawing the match. That would be a breakdown of five batting bonus points, one bowling bonus point and three for the draw. The other way is, obviously, more unconventional.”Our only chance is Somerset [and Yorkshire] not winning,” admitted Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s head of cricket. “We need nine points, which we could get in bonus points. Or we could have some sort of run chase with Lancashire tomorrow.”The word from the ground on the third evening was that there remained a chance that could happen, but any target would have to significantly favour Lancashire for them to accept. In what could be a controversial end to the Championship race, Nottinghamshire will gain 16 points if they can pull off an unlikely victory, but also need Durham to fight out a draw with Somerset at Chester-le-Street. Of course, this entire scenario also rests on the weather and while it’s likely that the sun will be out at Chester-le-Street tomorrow, intermittent showers are expected in Manchester.”We’ve been sat talking quite a lot this afternoon,” added Newell. “We’ve already started looking at that situation. That looks like the best option at the moment in terms of trying to get a minimum of nine points. If Lancashire are prepared to chase a score tomorrow afternoon then that discussion is going to have to take place.These two teams have form in that department, with Lancashire setting Nottinghamshire a contrived 260 in 64 overs on the final day at Trent Bridge last month in a match they had to win. The hosts won by three wickets.”You’ve got to keep the integrity of the game to the extent where you can’t give anything away. We chased 260 off 64 at Trent Bridge a couple of weeks ago. That, to me, would be a similar amount off maybe a few more overs.””At the moment I wouldn’t like to plan too far ahead for anything because I think it might rain again,” explained Lancashire coach Peter Moores. “What happens tomorrow, I don’t know. We’ll see if the weather’s set fair and if we’re going to get a day’s cricket.”Then you decide where you are from there like you would in any game. There’s a responsibility to make the sure the integrity of the game and competition is kept. We’ll cross all those bridges tomorrow when you sit down with the captain, look at conditions, the pitch and then take it from there and then make your call.”Nottinghamshire will have been keenly aware of events at Chester-le-Street, where Somerset remained in pole position in the Championship by claiming a full hand of batting bonus points after James Hildreth’s seventh Championship hundred of the season. His knock ensured a six-point lead over Nottinghamshire and took Somerset to 426 – a lead of 140 over Durham. Nottinghamshire have been left needing a miracle.

Leeds United will not target a new striker this month…

What’s the word?

That’s according to the ever-reliable Graham Smyth of the Yorkshire Evening Post, who delivered a fresh update on the Whites’ plans heading into the final week of the transfer window.

‘Bielsa did welcome both Joe Gelhardt and Tyler Roberts back from the treatment room at the weekend to bolster his attacking options, although neither started as Daniel James occupied the lone striker role.

‘Their return, along with that of Rodrigo who on Saturday played his first 90 minutes since September, mean Bielsa will not be asking for a new striker in the remainder of the January transfer window,’ he revealed in a recent column for the website.

Risky plan

This is a very risky decision from Bielsa and the club.

Of course, it would be hugely surprising to see the bring in many additions – if any at all – during the mid-season window because it’s not something that they have ever really done.

For instance, a midfielder is high on the agenda but they have not signed one since January 2018, some four years ago.

However, as we’ve seen regularly this season, injuries have persisted to rip through the playing squad, particularly upfront, where Bielsa has been without his star man Patrick Bamford for much of the year.

[snack-amp-story url = “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/latest-leeds-united-lufc-transfer-rumours-gossip-bielsa-orta-radrizzani-elland-road-updates” title=”Read the latest Leeds news, transfer updates and much, much more!”]

Indeed, the England international has missed 17 of their last 18 matches with a string of problems, ranging from ankle and hamstring injuries to his latest, a foot issue.

He has now missed as many games as goals scored in the Premier League last season and his absence in the final third has been evident – not at least because he’s the only senior centre-forward.

Raphinha (eight) is the only player to have found the net more than four times, whilst it’s been on academy gem Gelhardt and wingers Jack Harrison and James to fill the void, to not much of an effect.

If Bamford does return in due course and goes and picks up another injury, it’ll leave Bielsa back at square one in dealing with this problem, whereas any signed backup could fill in again.

The Yorkshiremen are by no means out of the relegation dogfight just yet, so this news should leave much of the Elland Road faithful worried, if not furious, heading into the final five days of the window.

United badly need additions and it doesn’t seem like that is going to happen.

AND in other news, Leeds could secure Bielsa a bargain Aaronson alternative in £22.5m-rated “phenomenon”…

David Moyes’ West Ham United side return to Premier League action this evening, with Watford making the short trip to the London Stadium for a 19:45 kick-off.

However, despite the Hammers currently sitting pretty in fifth place in the top-flight standings, while the visitors occupy a rather less impressive 18th place in the league table, the Irons’ narrow 2-1 (AET) victory over non-league Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday afternoon would not appear to suggest that the 58-year-old’s side are in the best of form at present.

Indeed, a number of the starting XI at Aggborough Stadium had something of a fixture to forget, none more so than centre-back Issa Diop – who once again failed to impress in the absence of Angelo Ogbonna in the heart of the West Ham defence.

Moyes must axe Diop

Over his 45 minutes on the pitch last weekend, the former France U21 international did very little to convince Moyes that he should retain his starting spot for the Watford game this evening, with the 25-year-old failing to make a single interception or tackle, losing all three of his ground duels, committing three fouls and losing possession of the ball on eight separate occasions.

These returns saw the £10.8m-rated centre-back earn an extremely disappointing SofaScore match rating of just 6.4, something which makes it easy to see why the West Ham boss decided to hook the defender at half-time.

Indeed, the Evening Standard journalist, Jack Rosser, tweeted of the £61k-per-week man’s display against Kidderminster: “To be generous, Diop has made a shocking start. Gave away the free-kick, collided with Areola for the goal and now gives another free-kick away on the edge of the box.”

Meanwhile, Toby Cudworth, the head of content for 90min, tweeted of the Frenchman’s performance last weekend: “Really is quite frightening for West Ham how bad Issa Diop can be.”

As such, it is clear for all to see that a repeat of his display against a non-league outfit in this evening’s Premier League clash could very well bring with it disastrous consequences for West Ham, something that leads us to believe Moyes simply must drop the centre-back for his starting XI against the Hornets.

In other news: David Moyes drops fresh West Ham fitness concern, fans will be seething

MatériaMais Notícias

O Santos inscreveu os primeiros 20 atletas no Campeonato Paulista e pode acrescentar mais cinco nomes na competição. Na chamada lista B, oito jogadores revelados na base e que foram promovidos entre o fim do ano passado e o início desta temporada disputarão a competição.

Entre os 20 jogadores da primeira lista está o zagueiro Cleber, que estava emprestado e disputou o Brasileiro do ano passado pelo Coritiba. O defensor foi comprado no ano passado do Hamburgo (ALE), por 3 milhões de euros (R$ 7,4 milhões) mas foi pouco aproveitado por problemas no joelho.

Ficaram fora da relação jogadores que ainda treinam no CT Rei Pelé, como o zagueiro Noguera, que está em negociação com o Estudiantes (ARG), Rafael Longuine, Vladimir Hernández, entre outros. O zagueiro Gustavo Henrique e o meia Vitor Bueno se recuperam de cirurgias no joelho, feitas no ano passado.

O centroavante Rodrigão, que começa a temporada como titular, teve problemas na documentação junto à Federação Paulista, mas será inscrito ainda nesta segunda-feira.

A Federação Paulista não limita o número de inscritos na lista B, mas exige que os atletas tenham disputado pelo menos uma competição de base pelo clube e esteja na equipe há pelo menos um ano. O regulamento permite que um time utilize no máximo cinco atletas dessa relação na mesma partida.

Confira os inscritos do Peixe no Estadual:

Goleiros: Vanderlei, Vladimir e João Paulo
Laterais: Victor Ferraz, Romário, Daniel Guedes, Caju e Emerson (base)*
Zagueiros: Cleber, David Braz, Luiz Felipe, Lucas Veríssimo, Bambu (base)* e Matheus Guedes (base)*
Volantes: Alison, Renato, Matheus Jesus e Victor Yan
Meias: Léo Cittadini, Jean Mota, Vecchio e Lucas Lourenço (base)*
Atacantes: Sasha, Bruno Henrique, Copete, Arthur Gomes (base)*, Rodrygo (base)* e Yuri Alberto (base)*

*Jogadores inscritos na lista B

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MatériaMais Notícias

O Corinthians colocou o lateral-esquerdo Juninho Capixaba como alvo para substituir Guilherme Arana, mas as primeiras conversas com o Bahia sobre o assunto não avançaram. Isso porque o clube baiano, pelo qual o jogador se destacou no último Campeonato Brasileiro, fez exigências consideradas inviáveis pela diretoria do Timão.

O contato mais forte se deu há cerca de duas semanas, quando o Corinthians se apresentou ao Bahia como interessado. Na ocasião, propôs envolver jogadores em troca e analisar uma quantia em dinheiro por parte dos direitos econômicos do jogador cujo contrato vai até dezembro de 2019. A pedida dos tricolores baianos, porém, assustou: os empréstimos dos atacantes Lucca e Marlone, e do goleiro Douglas. Todos voltam de empréstimo após disputarem o Brasileiro por Ponte Preta, Atlético-MG e Avaí, respectivamente.

O Corinthians pretende utilizar esses atletas como moeda de troca, mas considerou muito alta a pedida do Bahia até porque também precisaria arcar com uma quantia em dinheiro. As conversas eram para contratação em definitivo.

No momento, a situação é vista como igual à do meia Zé Rafael. O Corinthians também conversou com o Bahia sobre o destaque do Brasileiro, mas ouviu uma pedida considerada alta e recuou nas tratativas. Depois disso, não houve mais contato sobre o assunto entre as partes.

O Corinthians, no entanto, ainda não dá o negócio como encerrado, até porque existe uma vontade do lateral-esquerdo de 20 anos de se transferir para o campeão brasileiro. O Bahia está em processo de mudança de comando após a escolha de novo presidente, mas a ideia é manter os principais jogadores para 2018. Vendas para reforçar o caixa, porém, são vistas com bons olhos.

Até o momento, o Timão contratou o atacante Júnior Dutra, que estava no Avaí, e alinhou tudo com Renê Júnior, ex-Bahia. Ainda conversa pelo centroavante Tréllez, do Vitória, e espera a chegada de pelo menos um zagueiro. Outras opções para a lateral esquerda são analisadas. Além de Arana, Pablo deixou o clube.

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Tudo sobre

CorinthiansFabio CarilleJuninho Capixaba

A round-up of matches from the ICC World Cricket Leauge Division 5, where USA, Singapore and Bahrain won

Cricinfo staff26-Feb-2010

Crowd trouble marred a resounding victory for USA over Nepal at Kirtipur, and controversially ensured that USA and Nepal finished one and two, respectively, in the table, securing them promotion to Division 4. Nepal suffered their first defeat of the tournament and if crowd disturbance had not reduced the USA target to 157 from 46 overs, Nepal would probably have missed out on promotion. With the top three teams all level on eight points, Nepal narrowly stayed ahead of third-placed Singapore only by Net Run Rate (NRR).The USA victory was crafted from a fine bowling effort that choked Nepal’s innings. 37-year-old Kevin Darlington was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3 for 23 from ten overs that included a remarkable four maidens. Nepal had stumbled to 80 for 6 after 31.2 overs but a partnership of 62 between Gyanendra Malla and Mahaboob Alam restored a semblance of fight. After Alam had brought up his 50, both batsmen fell in the 45th over, Alam run out and Malla lbw to Lennox Cush. It was always going to be a tricky total to defend, and despite an early wicket from Alam, Nepal were never really in the contest.The successful USA chase was built around a calm 42 from captain Steve Massiah and a dashing, unbeaten 57, which included four sixes, from Sushil Nadkarni. The Nepali crowds have been such a prominent feature of this tournament, turning up in vast numbers to cheer on the home team, but today their enthusiasm and disappointment with Nepal’s effort overcame them.”It’s a huge relief for us to win promotion,” said an ecstatic Massiah after the game. “Having suffered the way we did when we last played in an ICC development tournament two years ago, crashing out to Jersey, it’s been something I’ve wanted the side to achieve since then. I feel like I’ve got the monkey off my back.”We executed our game plan brilliantly today, especially after suffering such a defeat at the hands of Singapore it was important that we bounced back in the way we did today,” he added. Massiah, 30, is already looking forward to the World Cricket League Division 4, a group that includes Tanzania, Italy, Argentina and the Cayman Islands.”I’m already excited about Division 4 not only because it’s being played in Italy but also because it’s a huge opportunity for us to move forward and get back into Division 1,” he said. “We’ve played Cayman Islands and Argentina before and we’ve won against them every time so I’m feeling fairly good already for August.”Nepal captain Paras Khadka, although unhappy with his side’s weak performance against USA, was relieved that they had done enough to earn promotion from Division 5. “The loss we didn’t expect it to happen – we really thought we could have done better – more than anything else though we wanted to qualify,” he explained.”We’d played exceptional cricket in the last four matches and we’ve lost today but we’ve qualified and for us that is most important thing. We’ve struggled previously in events like this and we need to succeed at them for Nepal cricket structure to continue to grow and for us as a side to progress.”I’m really looking forward to Division 4 in Italy. We’ve never faced any of the teams apart from, of course, the USA. On paper, I would say we’re probably the strongest two teams in that division now so here’s hoping both the USA and Nepal make it to Division 3.”Sushil Nadkarni and Aditya Thyagarajan celebrate USA’s victory over Nepal•International Cricket Council

Singapore missed out on promotion on NNR, despite storming past Jersey to record their fourth win of the tournament at Bhaktapur. Singapore’s NRR was 0.004 behind Nepal’s and if USA had beaten Nepal two balls quicker than they did, it would have been Singapore celebrating. Buddika Mendis’s sterling allround performance was almost carried Singapore to promotion. After Jersey chose to bat first, Matt Hague’s fifty, with contributions from Ryan Driver, Samuel de la Haye and Peter Gough set them up for a decent total before a lower-order collapse saw the side dismissed for 192 in the 49th over, with Mendis taking three wickets.He continued the good work when Singapore batted, his unbeaten 85 powering their run chase as they eased past Jersey’s total in 26 overs. He added 63 in under nine overs with Chetan Suryawanshi, who hit three fours and three sixes in a 22-ball 40 before giving Ben Stevens the first of his three wickets. Pramodh Raja and Mulewa Dharmichand came and went in quick succession, both falling to Stevens, but Munish Arora partnered Mendis in an unbroken 96-run partnership for the fourth wicket as Singapore cantered to a seven-wicket win, which should have been enough to win them promotion. For Jersey the defeat dumped them to fifth place and means they will be relegated to Division 6 next year.Jersey coach Craig Hogan did not hide his disappointment after the side’s poor showing at the tournament. “We absolutely got what we deserved,” he fumed. “We didn’t do anything together for 50 overs during the tournament.”We couldn’t bat well for 50 overs and you can’t continuously lose your last six wickets for 20 or 30 runs and you can’t go for 50, 60 or 70 runs in the power play. There are fundamental basic things that we haven’t done and we have got what we deserved. We have to work a bit harder and value our wickets a bit. When things don’t go your way you just have to scrounge and fight and we didn’t do that.”Bahrain waltzed to their second successive victory and ensured their survival in Division 5, by crushing stragglers Fiji by 95 runs in their bottom-of-the-table match at Lalitpur. A colossal allround effort from Tahir Dar underpinned the crucial victory, with him first injecting momentum into a solid batting effort with a 30-ball 54 before taking 4 for 19 to seal the result. Choosing to bat first after winning the toss Bahrain slipped to 21 for 2, including losing Abdul Majeed for a duck, before steady contributions from the middle and lower order laid the foundations for Dar’s late charge.Chasing 276 looked beyond Fiji from the start as they lost three wickets in the first two overs, with Adil Hanif taking two in his first over. A handy 72-run partnership between Peni Rika (29) and Sakaria Lomani (40) brought some respectability to the Fiji total before Dar’s strangling left-arm spin claimed the final four wickets and secured the match. Fiji have struggled to compete throughout the tournament, and after five straight defeats, they have been relegated to Division 6.

United States of America 5 4 1 0 08 +1.371 1184/233.3 910/246.0 Nepal 5 4 1 0 0 8+1.351 894/206.5 685/230.3 Singapore 54 1 0 0 8 +1.3471026/223.4 810/250.0 Bahrain 5 23 0 0 4 -0.549 1006/247.01030/222.5 Jersey 5 1 40 0 2 -0.579 913/220.3 1010/214.0 Fiji 5 0 5 00 0 -3.022 639/250.0 1217/218.1