The 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

tournament that took place during March 2018 in Zimbabwe. It formed the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. The top two teams,

Afghanistan national cricket team The Afghanistan men's national cricket team (, ) represents Afghanistan in international cricket. It is a full Member of the International Cricket Council with Test, One-Day International and T20 International status. Cricket has been play ...

and the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

, qualified for the World Cup, joining the hosts and the seven teams who had already qualified through their ranking in the

ICC ODI Championship The ICC Men's ODI Team Rankings (formerly known as the ICC ODI Championship) is an international One Day International (ODI) cricket rankings system of the International Cricket Council (ICC). After every ODI match, the two teams involved receiv ...

. Afghanistan won the tournament, beating the West Indies by 7 wickets in the final. Afghanistan’s Mohommad Shahzad was named the player of the match and Zimbabwe’s

Sikandar Raza Sikandar Raza Butt (; born 24 April 1986) is a Pakistani-born Zimbabwean international cricketer. He is an all-rounder, who bats right-handed and bowls right arm off-spin. He made his international debut for Zimbabwe in May 2013 and is the fir ...

was named the player of the tournament. The tournament was initially scheduled to take place in Bangladesh, but in May 2017 it was reported that the event would instead be hosted elsewhere as Bangladesh were close to automatic qualification, and thus would not need to participate in this tournament. Three bids were under consideration: one from Zimbabwe, one from Nepal and a joint-bid from Ireland and Scotland, who were the winners of the previous qualifier tournament. In October 2017, the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

(ICC) announced that Zimbabwe would host the event. In January 2018, the ICC confirmed all the fixtures and venues for the tournament. At the end of the tournament, the Netherlands (who won the ICC World Cricket League Championship) and the top three Associate Member teams earned

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) status until 2023.

Summary

Hosts Zimbabwe failed to reach the final and missed out on playing in the Cricket World Cup for the first time since 1983. As a result of their poor performance,

Zimbabwe Cricket Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC), previously known as the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) until 2004, is the governing body for the sport of cricket in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Cricket is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), and administers th ...

sacked all their coaching staff and their team captain, Graeme Cremer. Recently appointed Full Member side Ireland also missed the Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2007, and for the first time, no Associate Member qualified for the Cricket World Cup. Following the conclusion of the group stage, Afghanistan,

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, West Indies and

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

had all progressed to the Super Sixes, with a chance to qualify for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

did not qualify for the Super Sixes, but advanced to the playoffs to determine their final rankings in positions seven to ten. Both Scotland and the United Arab Emirates kept their ODI status until 2022, by virtue of reaching the Super Sixes. Hong Kong, Nepal and Papua New Guinea competed for the final ODI status spot in the playoffs. In the first round of playoff matches, Nepal beat Papua New Guinea by 6 wickets and the Netherlands beat Hong Kong by 44 runs. Therefore, with the Netherlands already guaranteed ODI status at the end of the tournament, Nepal gained ODI status for the first time. With their defeats in the first playoff matches, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea both lost their ODI status and were relegated to Division Two of the World Cricket League. The fixture between Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea, for the ninth place playoff, was the 4,000th ODI match to be played. The West Indies became the first side to qualify for the 2019 Cricket World Cup, after they beat Scotland by five runs by the

Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method The Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS method or DLS) previously known as the Duckworth–Lewis method (D/L) is a mathematical formulation designed to calculate the target score (number of runs needed to win) for the team batting second in ...

in the Super Sixes. Tournament hosts Zimbabwe lost their final match in the Super Sixes to the United Arab Emirates, meaning they would need Afghanistan and Ireland's match to end as tie to allow them to progress to the Cricket World Cup. However, Afghanistan beat Ireland by five wickets in the final Super Six match, therefore joining the West Indies in the tournament final and also qualifying for the Cricket World Cup. In the final, Afghanistan's

Rashid Khan Rashid Khan Arman (; born 20 September 1998) is an Afghan international cricketer and captain of the Afghanistan national team in the T20I format. In franchise leagues, he plays for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Adelaide ...

became the fastest and youngest bowler to take 100 wickets in ODIs when he dismissed

Shai Hope Shai Diego Hope (born 10 November 1993) is a Barbadian cricketer, who plays as a wicketkeeper-batsman for the West Indies cricket team. He is also the current ODI &T20I captain of the Windies. In June 2018, he was named the Men's Cricketer of t ...

. He took 44 matches to take his 100th dismissal, breaking the previous record of 52 matches, set by

Mitchell Starc Mitchell Aaron Starc (born 30 January 1990) is an Australian international cricketer who plays for the Australian national team and New South Wales in domestic cricket. A left-arm fast bowler and a lower order left-handed batsman, he is Austr ...

of Australia.

Teams

It was decided before the

2015 Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by Aust ...

that the number of participating teams at the

2019 Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament was hosted bet ...

would be reduced to ten. A new World Cup qualification structure was introduced where the host nation of the World Cup and the top seven other teams in the

on 30 September 2017 would qualify directly for the World Cup, with the remaining two spots being decided by the World Cup qualifying tournament. Following recent success,

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and

were promoted into the ICC ODI Championship in 2015, taking the number of teams in the ICC ODI Championship to twelve. Afghanistan and Ireland were granted

Test status Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

in 2017, making them the 11th and 12th Test-playing nations, meaning that at least two Test-playing nations would miss the World Cup for the first time. The bottom four teams in the ICC ODI Championship ranking would be joined by the top four teams from the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship and the two finalists of the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two for the qualifying tournament. Therefore, at most two associate teams could qualify for the World Cup, or none if beaten by the Test playing nations.

ICC ODI Championship

The bottom four teams (9th to 12th places) in the ICC ODI Championship, as at 30 September 2017, did not receive automatic World Cup qualification and are required to play in the 2018 World Cup Qualifier. Qualification by this route was finalised after the

lost the first match of their ODI series against England in September 2017, meaning they were unable to catch any of the teams above them in the rankings by the cut-off date. Afghanistan, Ireland and

, below the West Indies in the rankings, were confirmed as having to play in the qualification tournament before this date.

WCL Championship

The top four teams from the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship qualified for the 2018 World Cup Qualifier. After the conclusion of the sixth round of fixtures in the championship, both the

and

had qualified. Following the first fixtures in round seven, they were joined by

and

. The Netherlands ended up winning the tournament, with Scotland finishing second followed by Hong Kong in third and Papua New Guinea fourth.

WCL Division Two

The top two teams from the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two qualified for the 2018 World Cup Qualifier.

and the

placed first and second in the round-robin stage, thus claiming the final places in the Qualifier. The United Arab Emirates won the final of the Division Two tournament to go into Group A, with Nepal placed in Group B.

Tournament format

Initially, the teams were split into two groups of five; these groups played on a round-robin basis. Two points were awarded for a win, one point for a no result and no points for a loss. The top three teams in each group went forward to a Super Six round. The results between the progressing teams were carried forward, including the corresponding points and net run rate, while the results against the teams that finished in the bottom two places in each group were discarded. Each team then played the qualifiers from the other group. The remaining four teams (that finish in the bottom two places in each group) played-off for positions 7–10. The bottom two Associate Member teams, excluding the Netherlands, were relegated to the ICC World Cricket League Division Two. The top two teams at the end of the Super Six stage earned qualification to the 2019 World Cup, and also contested the final to determine the winner of the tournament. If the final ended as a tie, then a

Super Over Super Over, also known as a one-over eliminator or a one over per side eliminator, is a Tiebreaker, tie-breaking method used in Limited overs cricket, limited-overs cricket matches. If a match ends in a "Result (cricket)#Tie, tie", it proceeds t ...

would have been played to decide the winner. In the event of a no result, the tournament's winner would have been the side that finished highest in the Super Sixes.

Squads

The following squads were named ahead of the tournament: Prior to the tournament, Stephan Myburgh was ruled out of the Netherlands squad due to injury and was replaced by Bas de Leede. Zimbabwe initially named Ryan Burl and Tarisai Musakanda in their squad, but they were replaced by Sean Williams and Cephas Zhuwao. Afghanistan's captain Asghar Stanikzai missed the start of the tournament, after having his appendix removed.

captained Afghanistan in Stanikzai's absence. Stanikzai was eventually ruled out of the start of the tournament and was replaced by Afsar Zazai. Stanikzai returned to the squad, after he was declared fit to play, ahead of Afghanistan's final two Super Six matches. Stanikzai's replacement, Afsar Zazai, was ruled out of the last two matches due to injury. Following Afghanistan's match with Zimbabwe, Mohammad Shahzad was suspended for the final two group matches after being found guilty of damaging part of the ground. Zimbabwe's Brian Vitori was suspended from bowling, following the match with Nepal. He was replaced by Richard Ngarava. Sheldon Cottrell was replaced in the West Indies squad by

Keemo Paul Keemo Mandela Angus Paul (born 21 February 1998) is a Guyanese cricketer who plays for the West Indies cricket team. He made his international debut for the team in 2018. In August 2019, Cricket West Indies named him as the T20 Player of the Yea ...

, after Cottrell injured himself during the match against the United Arab Emirates. Ahead of Hong Kong's group match with Scotland, Ahsan Abbasi suffered an injury and was ruled out of the tournament. He was replaced by Kinchit Shah.

Warm-up matches

Ten non-ODI warm-up matches were played on 27 February and 1 March.

Group stage

The ICC confirmed the fixtures for the tournament in January 2018. All the matches were recorded as ODIs, except those that involved the Netherlands and Nepal, as they did not have ODI status at the start of the tournament. On 8 March 2018, the venues for the final two games in Group B were switched, due to the anticipated attendance for Zimbabwe's last group match. On 13 March 2018, the ICC confirmed all the umpires for the Super Sixes and playoff matches.

Group A

Points table

Fixtures

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group B

Points table

Fixtures

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Play-offs

---- ---- ----

Super Sixes

Teams that advance to the Super Six play three further matches against the qualifiers from the other group, with the two results against teams from their own group carrying forward from the group stage. Teams also carried forward their seeding positions from the first stage to determine the fixtures for the Super Six.

Points table

Fixtures

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Final

Final standings

These were the final standings at the end of the tournament:

References

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cricket World Cup Qualifier, 2018 Qualifier World Cup Qualifier World Cup Qualifier World Cup Qualifier, 2018

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Cricket World Cup Qualifier International cricket competitions in Zimbabwe