Ireland to compete in five-team series ahead of T20 World Cup Qualifier

Ireland will compete with Oman, Nepal, Netherlands and Hong Kong in a five-team T20 tournament ahead of the T20 World Cup Qualifier. The series which will see each team play four matches, will get run from October 5-10 in Oman following which four of the five teams will head over to the UAE for the Qualifier.

“I’m very pleased to see this pre-Qualifier warm-up series announced – it’s not only important for our squad to play competitive T20 cricket before the World Cup Qualifier, but to do so in similar conditions to the UAE will be a crucial part of our preparations,” Ireland’s head coach Graham Ford said on Monday.

“We have put a lot of work into improving our T20 skills over the last two years and I think we’re starting to see the benefits of that work. Many of the players have grown impressively as cricketers and I feel that as a team there are exciting signs of progress.

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“While it’s true that we haven’t played as much international T20 cricket as we would have liked over the past 12 months, what we have at the international and domestic level has really demonstrated the potential of the squad – we now need to focus on the task at hand and give ourselves the best shot at world cup qualification.”

There will be two games held per day at the Al Amerat Cricket Stadium in Muscat.

Itinerary:

October 5 (Saturday) – Oman vs Hong Kong, Ireland vs Netherlands

October 6 (Sunday) – Oman vs Ireland, Nepal vs Hong Kong

October 7 (Monday) – Netherlands vs Nepal, Hong Kong vs Ireland

October 9 (Wednesday) – Ireland vs Nepal, Oman vs Netherlands

October 10 (Thursday) – Netherlands vs Hong Kong, Oman vs Nepal