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Ireland has progressed to the semi-finals of the Desert T20 Challenge with two wins in two days.
Ireland has progressed to the semi-finals of the Desert T20 Challenge with two wins in two days. The Finals Day tomorrow is set up in a format that is similar to that of the T20 Blast Finals Day in England, where both semi finals and final are played on the same day.
They will play their semi final against Scotland, the winners of Group B at 10:30 am in Dubai Sports City. They will be hoping that they can make it through to the final later that day. Here is a look at all of the teams who have made it through to tomorrow. Afghanistan will play Oman in the first semi final, whcih starts at 06:00 am.

Ireland:

The Boys in Green finished up with two wins from three games in Group A. They were beaten by Afghanistan by 5 wickets in their first match. However, they have come back strong since then. Ireland defeated Namibia by 5 wickets with two balls to spare to keep the side in the tournament on Tuesday. They then had a convincing 24 run win against the hosts the UAE yesterday to progress to the semi final stage. The Irish bowling has been the most impressive part of their game so far. Jacob Mulder, only making one appearance for Ireland before the T20 Challenge, has been Ireland’s highest wicket taker in the competition, having 6 scalps so far. This has been backed up by the rest of the spin department in George Dockrell and Andy Mc Brine. As well as this, the blistering opening spell by Boyd Rankin, taking 3-16 against the UAE yesterday, effectively ended any chance of the hosts progressing out of the Group stage. The batting for Ireland has improved batting as the games progressed, with Ireland making a higher total as each Group A game progressed. There is good momentum for the side leading into tomorrow’s semi-final clash with ??.

Afghanistan

They were also in Group A. They won all of the three matches at that stage, defeating Ireland by 5 wickets, beating and Namibia by 64 runs. Rashid Khan and Dawlat Zadran have been doing most of the damage for the Afghanistan side, with 5 and 4 wickets repectively. This has allowed their batting to either chase down totals comfortably, or win by big margins. Samiullah Shenwari has been their top scorer so far with the bat. He had made 80 runs so far in the tournament.

Scotland

Even with the retirement of former captain Preston Mommsen last month, Scotland has proved to be a side to be reckoned with in this tournament. They have also gone unbeaten so far in the Desert T20, winning all their games in Group B, with heir batting has been their strength. Callum MacLeod (115) and Richie Berrington (98) have been the highest run getters in the Desert T20, and they will look to continue that against Ireland tomorrow. Their seam bowling has proved to be effective in spin conditions, with Safyaan Sharif and Josh Davey both taking 5 wickets each so far in the competition.

Oman

Oman just got through into the semi finals of the Desert T20, with winning one of their three contests in Group B, where they defeated Hong Kong within 11 Overs on Tuesday. With the Netherlands and Hong Kong also having a single win, three teams were on 2 points. However, Oman progressed due to a Net Run Rate of 0.895. This was helped with their close losses to Scotland and the Netherlands. Aqib Ilyas made 53 (30) in the contest against Hong Kong, and is ranked 6th in the top run scorers in the competition with 76 runs. Bilal Khan has taken the most wickets in the tournament with 6, and they will need experience if they are to topple Afghanistan and reach the final.

Final Day Information
Date: Jan 20, 2017.
Venues: Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Semi Final 1
Afghanistan vs. Oman
Time: 06: 00 GMT

Semi Final 2
Ireland vs. Scotland
Time: 10:30 GMT

Final
Start Time: 15:30 GMT

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