Canada @ 2024-6 CWC League 2

[ray]

This entire home stand could not have gone much better for Cricket Canada - 4 ODI wins, 3/4 T20I wins and only one match (Nepal vs Oman ODI) lost to weather ... in September ... in notoriously poorly drained Maple Leaf CC.

All well and good but there are still some worries about the team. There weren't too many consistent performances from the batting - very much up and down and mostly down for some. There are still many questions about the Canada's depth with the pace bowlers and spinners. Some options have appeared like Akhil Kumar but the most consistent looks to be Parveen Kumar.

I noticed that high performance matches are going on alongside the T20Is at King City. Then Nepal appear to be sticking around for some more games with the HP team. Great stuff. Hope the weather holds. They really do appear to be trying everyone and his brother. I hope the matches with Nepal have a more consistent squad of the most promising players. Sheel Patel and Ajayveer Hundal are a couple of players I'd like to see, having knocked on the door this summer.

[ray]

Round 4 of CWC League 2 for Canada (March 2025 Windhoek, Namibia):
March 05 vs Netherlands
March 09 vs Namibia
March 11 vs Netherlands
March 15 vs Namibia

Canada got off to a somewhat unexpected good start in League 2 based on prior tours to Hong Kong and Nepal. No news yet on such a tour in preparation for Namibia.

Namibia will play League 2 matches in Oman against the hosts and USA so they will be in form.

[ray]

Canada will play Zimbabwe A in 3 fifty over matches prior to League 2 in Namibia. Canada headed to southern Africa on February 14th.

Tour:
February 20 Zimbabwe Academy
February 23 Zimbabwe Academy
February 26 Zimbabwe A
February 28 Zimbabwe A
March 01 Zimbabwe A

Thanks to our friends at Czarsportz for the heads-up. Meanwhile Cricket Canada FB is busy looking back at past accomplishments.

https://3-mob.com/sport/zimbabwe-a-to-f ... ay-series/

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Edit: Seems as though prospects Yuvray Samra and Ajayveer Hundal are in Zimbabwe. Matthew Spoors may be there as well.
Apparently, 1st tour match on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN-i-uRlujI
Looks as though I was wrong about Spoors. Wishful thinking on my part.

Canada bowled out for 133 in the tour opener after being 11/4 against the Academy. Perhaps that is why CC are not mentioning the Zim tour.

[Victorian]

Years ago, Canada twice played in Zim before tournaments so I follow Zim cricket. Canada can win many of these games. The Academy team will be shocking. There’s no depth domestically at all. If the ZimA team has no national team players Canada will look very strong. Actually, Canada could compete against the proper Zim national side.

[Victorian]

Zim cricket has a habit of doing this. Several of these “U23 Academy” players are in their 30s. Jongwe has played for Zim many times. Mafudza has a few caps but should be selected more because he gets excellent domestic numbers. Antum Naqvi is apparently very rich and could play for Oz or Pakistan but he’s not good enough. He’s very good, however, in Zim. Oh, he’s 26.
Playing these type of players is best for Canada though. Actually, I don’t know who the playing XI are yet.

[Victorian]

Not to go on and on but Zim’s opening bowler, Alex Falao, who is u23, has played 88 matches and taken 106 wickets - plus one so far against Canada.
Edit : two v Canada
Prosper Mugeri, aged 28, has played 106 matches.

[Victorian]

A 69 run partnership for the 10th wicket.
A poor batting display from Canada. Almost everything was in the air so perhaps they were surprised by the bounce? Also, of course, the pitch might have been a complete minefield. Apparently in Harare you always win the toss and bowl first.
I can’t delete my initial post but the players I complained about didn’t play. They were mostly young it seems but how can an 18 yr old or a 21 yr old have played in 97 or 116 games and taken 100 wickets? Are they counting every game they’ve played since they were 15?

[Victorian]

Very unfortunate that the game was abandoned so no fielding practice

[Victorian]

I think the game today was abandoned because of a wet outfield. Too bad.

[ray]

1st OD against Zim A: Canada had the host in trouble in the middle innings but could not make further inroads. It was a bit surprising that Thaker was not given a bowl. Zim A run out easy winners.

2nd OD: Canadian bowlers generally struggled for wickets except for Matharu who had one of his better days. The team now need to show gradual improvement to chase the Zimbabwe's 265 total.
Edit: Canadian batting has a good day (Kirton 84, Samra 80). Once again, Canada was not able to take advantage of early bowling breakthroughs. The Zimbabwian 5th wicket partnership put on 123 runs.

3rd OD: Hard to say how Zimbabwe A would compare to the Dutch or Namibian opposition Canada will face next week, but Canada has improved each time out as one would hope. It will be interesting to see which of the tour participants is in the Canada squad named for League 2 Namibia. Will reinforcements like Sana be brought in ?

Czarsportz is listing a 5-match T20Is series between Canada and Namibia following the League 2 series.
Dates are March 18, 19, 21, 22 and 23