‘We know it’s going to be tough’ — Hamid Shah gets ready for Division Three
Denmark could only wait and watch as Malaysia and Bermuda played out their final fixtures of the ICC World Cricket League Division Four at Kuala Lumpur’s Kinrara Academy Oval on Sunday. They had played their last game already, on Saturday, and lost to Vanuatu by five wickets. It had come down to net run rate, and while Malaysia did beat Bermuda by 89 runs, it wasn’t enough for the home side to get past Denmark.
Uganda, with four wins from five games, had already qualified for Division Three, and when it ended, Malaysia and Denmark were level on points — six but Malaysia’s NRR was 0.322 to Denmark’s 0.349.
“I was actually at the barber’s, I was getting my hair cut, and suddenly I saw the scorecard and I was screaming! I was like, ‘Yes, man! Yes! We’ll be through!’ The barber was like, what’s going on? SoI told him that we were going to Division Three,” said Hamid Shah, the Denmark captain, who scored 179 runs in five outings and also picked up four wickets.
Denmark had started the tournament well, beating Bermuda, Jersey and Malaysia. But then they lost by one run (DLS method) to Uganda and went down to Vanuatu in their final game.
Despite that, with Bermuda 37/6 in reply to Malaysia’s 257/8, all hope seemed lost. But as Janeiro Tucker (55) and Kamau Leverock (61) partnered for 97 runs for the seventh wicket, the script changed.
Denmark's captain heard his team had been promoted to World Cricket League Division 3 while having his haircut.
“They (the players) were at different places. Some were in the Bermuda game, some were in the town, so we were in different places, and when we heard the good news, we went together and celebrated our win,” said Shah.
It might not have come the way they would have liked, but Denmark, and Shah, will take the move up the ranks.
“First time captaining the team, I was really excited. It was tough, but I am really, really pleased the way the boys played, especially in the first three games,” he said. “We played really good cricket. Unfortunately against Uganda, we lost by one run. That’s cricket. And against Vanuatu, they played really good cricket. I don’t think we played really bad the last two games but …”
Now comes higher-grade cricket, up in Division Three, which will be one level tougher too.
“We are already excited to play Division Three cricket,” said Shah. “But we have to go one step at a time, and we know it’s going to be tough. But we have played against many of the teams in Division Three, so we are looking forward to that.”