The two so far unbeaten teams in the World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE remained unbeaten after today's final round of group matches, and will now meet in Thursday's first qualification final.
Afghanistan were in action at the global cricket academy ground in Dubai this morning against Bermuda. Batting first, they reached 177-5 from their 20 overs, Mohammad Shahzad top scoring with 64 from 38 balls. Gulbodin Naib played a brutal cameo towards the end of the innings by smashing 26 from just 8 balls.
In reply, Bermuda got a lot closer than many would have expected. In the thirteenth over, Janeiro Tucker cut loose and smashed Samiullah Shenwari for four consecutive sixes. The brutality couldn't continue though, as he was caught going for a fifth six.
71 from the last seven overs wasn't completely out of the question though, but some tight bowling from Afghanistan ensured that Bermuda couldn't cause an upset as they were restricted to 162-7 from their 20 overs, Aftab Alam the pick of the bowlers with 3-23.
In the afternoon match on the same ground, Namibia took on Italy. The opening partnership of Raymond van Schoor and Gerrie Snyman put on 144 in 16 overs before Snyman was out for 78. Louis van der Westhuizen's stay at the crease was brief, hitting a six before being caught behind from his second delivery.
Van Schoor stayed in to the end of the Namibian innings to finish on 73 not out, whilst Craig Williams clubbed 25 from 12 balls to help take the total to 194-2 in their 20 overs.
Italy's reply started promising, with Michael Di Venuto and Gareth Berg putting on 53 before Di Venuto was bowled for 35 in the sixth over. Berg stayed in to score 47, but Italy fell away and were unable to get close to Namibia's total, despite captain Alessandro Bonora hitting a quick fire 40 from 22 balls. They were restricted to 167-8 from their 20 overs, losing by 27 runs.
Afghanistan and Namibia will now meet in Thursday's qualifying final, with the winners gaining qualification to the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka later this year. Despite these two teams being the highest ranked at the moment though, the match will not be a full Twenty20 International even though the other two qualification play-offs on that day will be, as Namibia do not have ODI status.
At Sharjah in the afternoon, Canada just needed to avoid a heavy defeat to Nepal to secure their spot in the play-offs, but they were given an almighty scare by the Nepalese who bowled well to restrict Canada to just 101-8 from their 20 overs.
However Nepal's batsman couldn't finish the job their bowlers started and they found run scoring even harder than Canada. Sharad Vesawkar was the only batsman to get a start with 28 as Nepal were bowled out for 83, losing by 18 runs. Canada will meet Ireland in Thursday's play-offs.
In other matches today, Kenya beat Uganda by 48 runs thanks to 57 from Collins Obuya, whilst Papua New Guinea beat Denmark by 14 runs, despite a sterling bowling effort from Denmark's Aftab Ahmed, who took 6-22, the seventh best bowling figures in List A Twenty20 cricket.
The teams that didn't make the qualification play-offs still have their final positions to play-off for. Kenya will play Nepal and Italy will play PNG on Thursday as the teams seek 7th place, Bermuda will play the USA and Hong Kong will play Uganda on Thursday as those teams seek 11th place, whilst Denmark and Oman will play each other, also on Thursday, to try and avoid finishing 16th and last.