Deaf ICC T20 World Cup – India still unbeaten with 3 wins

Another amazing day on the field by Imran Shaikh has helped India stay on top in the ongoing Deaf ICC T20 World Cup series at Gurugram. Shaikh picked up five wickets in his four overs, giving away just 17 runs, in the third match against Australia.

Helping Shaikh was Jitender Tyagi, who picked up 3 wickets in 4 overs, giving away just 7 runs. Indian bowlers were able to topple the Australians for just 75 runs in 14.2 overs. Australia, which won the toss chose to bat first.

Not that it was an easy win as the Australian bowlers putting up a fight. They took 2 wickets but a solid 46 off 31 balls with 3 sixes and 4 fours by Vipul Patel and another 27 runs of 27 balls from Tyagi ensured India finished the match in just 11.2 overs.

This was a big match for us. Australia is a tough team. We were able to successfully execute our
strategy and planning well. Imran was able to use his pace very well. This quality of cricket that we are playing has come after a lot of hard work over the last two to three months. This does not happen in just a day. We have won the last three consecutive matches convincingly as a result. The Australian team is very good, but we have a lot of great talent in our team. – Kiran Sane, Coach, India Deaf Cricket Team

The other big match was between South Africa and Sri Lanka, with the Lankans losing in a big way. After winning the toss, South African batsmen Rual Kumalo with 48 of 26 balls and Reinhardt
Limbach with 31 of 25 balls took their team to a comfortable 163 for the
loss of 8 wickets.

Sri Lankan bowlers Alanrose Kalep and captain Gimadu Malkam took 2 wickets each. The Lankan score was made up of a quick 39 by Kamkanam Rajith off 28 balls and 22
runs from Gimadu Malkam from 19 balls. The South African bowlers easily overpowered the Sri Lankan Batsmen, restricting them to 150.

For South Africa this was a critical game. “It was imperative that we win this game. We have not won a game for a
number of years”, said Riaan Cronje, coach of the South African team.

Sri Lanka vs Nepal

The Sri Lankans has better luck against Nepal, which was unable to handle the Lankan bowlers. Nepal was all out for just 47 runs in 15.4 overs. The Lankan bowlers were led by Bandara Sampath Jayasinghe who took 3 wickets in 4 overs giving away just 10 runs. Uwaragala Asanka Manjula gave away 11 runs for his three wickets in four overs.

Ushantha Gunarathna, Coach, Sri Lanka was happy with this result given the debacle against South Africa.

“The bowlers’ delivery was not good against South Africa but we followed the runs and our two players also get injured during the match. Against Nepal we wanted to get number 2 or 3 point of stability in the game. Nepal
is the lowest scorer in this tournament that’s why we aimed to make more
runs. We had confidence and it helped us winning the match.”

Nepal vs South Africa

South Africa beat Nepal thanks to a great spell by Player of the match Avinash Kalicharan, who took 3 wickets and gave away just 8 runs.

South Africa won the toss and chose to field. Nepal scored just 84 runs, which is their highest score in the tournament so far. A quick 33 off 20 balls, from Rual Kumalo, including 1 six and 3 fours saw South Africa sail to
victory in just 10.1 overs with the loss of 4 wickets.

“It was a must win for us to ensure a place in the top three. We needed to improve
our strike rate which we have been able to do in this match,” said Cronje, coach, South Africa.

The tournament will end on 30 September and five countries are taking part.

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