Final Commonwealth Games Spot Up For Grabs In Malaysia

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jan, 2022 ) :Five teams will battle at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur for the final spot at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Bangladesh, Kenya, Malaysia, Scotland and Sri Lanka will compete in a round-robin format T20 tournament, with the table-topping team booking their ticket to Birmingham.

Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa have already secured their spot for the games, as well as Barbados, selected as the representative from the West Indies.

Women's cricket will feature in the Commonwealth Games for the first time this year, with the sport's last appearance being a men's competition in 1998, fittingly in Kuala Lumpur, where this week's women's tournament takes place, said in a press release on Monday.

The hosts kick off proceedings, facing Bangladesh on the morning of match day one, with Sri Lanka and Scotland facing off in the afternoon fixture.

Malaysia captain Winifred Anne Duraisingam stresses that her team must make the most of their home-field knowledge if they are to make any headway at tournament.

"We are certainly comfortable as we know the ground conditions and we hope this will give us an edge as we do our best.  "The pitch is very lively and is good for both batting and bowling." Sri Lanka head into the qualifying tournament as arguably the strongest side on paper, though Chamari Athapaththu's side missed out on qualifying for the Women's World Cup, losing out to Bangladesh, Pakistan and the West Indies due to their inferior ICC ODI Ranking.

Athapaththu believes the team should not struggle for motivation, given the disappointment of failing to qualify for New Zealand 2022.

"Apart from the World Cup, the Commonwealth Games is the other major tournament to be held in 2022. Obviously, it won't wipe out the disappointment of missing out on the World Cup but will give us some amount of solace.

"We have a very good chance of winning this tournament and qualifying for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. We have experienced players as well as talented youngsters in our side, with the likes of Harsitha Samarawickrama and Kavisha Dilhari the ones to look out for." Bangladesh and Scotland pose as the biggest challengers for Athapaththu's side, and Nigar Sultana believes her side has enough collective talent to prevail.

"We have experienced campaigners to compliment the youthful exuberance in our team.

"We are well prepared now, having played in different conditions during the past few months.

"It's going to be a combined effort from all of us if we do well here." Scottish captain Kathryn Bryce is upbeat about her team's chances, and while the performances of both herself and leg-spinner Abtaha Maqsood will go a long way towards qualifying, the team is starting to piece together strong performances as a team.

"There are lots of players in the team who are starting to stand up and as a team we're not really relying on a small number of people anymore which is really exciting to see.

"Obviously Abtaha Maqsood has had a really big summer playing in The Hundred and I think her quality will hopefully come through and has the potential to win us some matches." Every match of the Commonwealth Games Qualifier will be live-streamed on ICC.tv, with replays available on-demand after the final ball.

Live scores and match reports will be at icc-cricket.com and the Online Media Zone.

Match schedule (local time): 18 Jan: Malaysia vs Bangladesh (09h30); Sri Lanka vs Scotland (13h15) 19 Jan: Kenya vs Bangladesh (09h30); Scotland vs Malaysia (13h15) 20 Jan: Kenya vs Sri Lanka (09h30) 22 Jan: Scotland vs Kenya (09h30); Sri Lanka vs Malaysia (13h15)23 Jan: Bangladesh vs Scotland (09h30); Malaysia vs Kenya (13h15)24 Jan: Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka (09h30).