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BAHRAIN will play the UAE today in their final, must-win game of the Gulf Cricket T20I Championship 2023 at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium in Doha.
The kingdom’s team are currently fifth in the six-team table with four points from two wins and two defeats, behind leaders UAE, who have eight points from four straight wins; Qatar, who have six points from three wins and two losses and Oman and Kuwait, who both have four points each but are in third and fourth place, respectively, because of better net run-rates (NRR).
Bahrain will have to beat the UAE, who are already through to tomorrow’s final, by a big margin to improve their NRR, which is currently -0.686, and hope that whichever of Oman and Kuwait emerges victorious in the last group game tonight wins by a slim margin.
If the scenario plays out as Bahrain would, doubtless, hope it does, the kingdom’s team would draw level with Qatar on six points and one of Kuwait and Oman would also end up with six points, leaving the question of which of the three teams goes through to the final to be answered on NRR.
Given the NRRs of Oman (currently 0.538) and Kuwait (currently 0.418), it is highly unlikely that Bahrain would be able to leapfrog ahead of either of them even if the kingdom’s team was able to defeat the UAE.
Qatar’s NRR is -0.503 so a Bahrain win over the UAE could possibly push them past the hosts. But victory by a narrow margin would mean that either of Kuwait or Oman (depending on who wins tonight) would end up in second place in the table and go through to the final.
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