DUBAI // Fittingly for a tournament which might as well have been designed by the makers of the Rubik's Cube, the final match of the pool stage concluded Tuesday without anyone knowing who had gained the final qualifying spot for Thursday's preliminary final.
Whoever had the PhD in statistics finally deigned that Scotland had sneaked through thanks to a superior run-rate of just 0.007 better than Kenya.
The confusion was hardly helped by the chaotic end to Scotland's match against the United States.
They lost off the penultimate delivery of the match, which was delivered by a fill-in bowler, Richie Berrington, after Safyaan Sharif, who had started the over, went off with a side strain.
That was easy bit.
The ball was then launched high into the breeze, and when it fell to ground it was deemed to have been dropped by Preston Mommsen, even though he appeared to feel he had held the catch.
While the ball was in flight, Orlando Baker and Asif Khan had enough time to scurry the two runs needed for the United States to win. However, the result was settled one delivery too late for Kenya to steal in to the play-off phase in front of Scotland.
Confused? Call the ICC.
It means the Scots now face a knock-out match against Holland, and Ireland meet Canada, while Afghanistan and Namibia get the first dibs on a place in the World T20 via tomorrow's qualifying final.
"As we have progressed during the competition, the more the reality has sunk in and we have started to believe we can do it," Sarel Burger, the Namibia captain, said. "I think it is focusing the guys' minds on the job which needs to be done. We are one game away from it. It would be awesome to do it."
pradley@thenational.ae
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