The ball-by-ball commentary on Cricket Europe’s coverage of Canada’s opening game in the Pepsi ICC WCL Division Two against The Netherlands (Jan 17) indicated a couple of catches were missed during the 40th over, bowled by Rizwan Cheema. Canadian National coach Mukesh Narula confirmed these missed chances in an e-mail, but also said “The batters had to bat much better than they did.”
The Dutch 40th over began at 156/4 with Wesley Barresi on 14 not out and Michael Rippon 8 not out. Barresi hit the first ball to long-on but a chance was missed and the ball went over the boundary for four. .Mukesh Narula stated: “It was an overhead chance at long-on to Dhaliwal who misjudged it, and it essentially cost us heavily.” Barresi moved to 18 and opened up with another boundary and two twos off the last three balls of Cheema’s over.
Barresi had picked up a single off the second ball of the over then “Dhindsa dropped a difficult chance at point.” Rippon stayed alive and also picked up a single. So an over from Cheema that had a potential two wickets ended with 14 runs conceded.
The heat was on in the closing overs of the Dutch innings (the temperature went up from 27C to 31C during the last hour or so in Windhoek, according to one weather service) and “humidity also took its toll, but no excuses, ” says Narula’s e-mail. “The batters had to bat much better than they did.”
Dhindsa caught a skier from Rippon of Parth Desai in the 44th over. Barresi (when 63*) picked up some boundaries before giving a skied chance off Pervez (49th over) that was missed and hit two boundaries and cashed in with two boundaries and a six in the last over, bowled by Cheema. The six came after Jamil (Ahsan Malik) was dropped in the deep and picked up three “bonus” runs.
My email to Mukesh Narula did not ask about the chances in the last two overs of the Dutch innings, as if Barresi had been out for 14 in the 40th over, he would not have been around to reach 63 (if caught in the 49th over) or close the Dutch innings with his team on 251/7 (50 ov) helped by a major personal contribution from Wesley Barresi of 83 not out.
Rizwan Cheema’s bowling figures certainly took a hit with the 14 conceded in over 40 (his 8th over) of the Dutch innings and the 21 in the last over (his 10th over). His first seven overs cost just 13 runs. On a different day he would surely have picked up a wicket or two in the 40th over, and, perhaps, Canada may have been chasing around 200 to win. But that was not the way the cookie crumbled on Saturday.
Canada now needs to get on track with a win on Sunday against Kenya, who will also being looking for a win after losing to hosts Namibia in the opening round of Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Two. .
Eddie Norfolk with thanks to Mukesh Narula .