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The first round of the ICC T20 World Championships has finished and the final ten teams will compete to get to the final and win the competition. The first round consisted of eight teams in two groups and the winner of each group got through to the final ten.
Group A
Consisting of Oman, Ireland, Netherlands and Bangladesh, it was going to be a competitive group. On the first day of matches Oman beat Ireland by two wickets, however they came close to losing as they nearly ran out of overs. The Netherlands ran out of balls as Bangladesh beat them by just eight runs.
The second set of matches were called off because of rain and all teams were awarded one point each. The final set of matches were important as both Bangladesh and Oman played each other and whoever won, won the group.
Bangladesh got 180 in their 20 overs and Oman were 65/9 when rain stopped play. Bangladesh won by 54 run on the Duckworth Lewis method. Ireland lost by twelve runs to the Netherlands, resulting in Bangladesh winning the group and going into Group two of the final ten.
Group B
This group consisted of Scotland, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. On the first day of matches, Zimbabwe played Hong Kong and Zimbabwe won by 14 runs, and the other match was between Scotland and Afghanistan in which Afghanistan won by 14 runs.
In the second set of matches, Scotland faced Zimbabwe in which Zimbabwe won by 11 runs after bowling Scotland out for 136 in 19.4 overs. Afghanistan kept their winning record by beating Hong Kong by six wickets as Hong Kong couldn’t manage to match Afghanistan’s 119 in their 20 overs.
The final match-up between Afghanistan and Zimbabwe was an important match as it was a winner takes all affair. Afghanistan manged to post a confident 186/6 before they bowled Zimbabwe out for 127 in 19.4 overs and winning by 59 runs. In the other match, Scotland beat Hong Kong by eight wickets. This meant that Afghanistan goes through to Group two of the final ten.
