2021 Continental Cup
Dates2 – 5 September 2021
Cricket formatTwenty20 International
Host(s) Romania
Champions Romania
Runners-up Luxembourg
Participants6
Matches11
Most runsHungary Zeeshan Kukikhel (263)
Most wicketsLuxembourg Vikram Vijh (9)

The 2021 Continental Cup was a Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket tournament that took place at the Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground in Ilfov County, Romania, in the first week of September 2021.[1] Austria won the previous edition in 2019,[2] but did not defend the title in 2021. The participating nations were the hosts Romania, along with Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg and Malta.[1] Hungary played their first ever official T20I match during the tournament.[3] The teams were split into two groups, with the top two in each group progressing to the semi-finals.

Luxembourg topped Group A to set up a semi-final against Hungary, while Romania earned a semi-final against Malta after winning Group B.[4] Luxembourg and Romania advanced to the final by winning their semi-final matches, while the Czech Republic finished in fifth place after defeating Bulgaria in a play-off.[5] On the last day of the tournament, Romania defeated Luxembourg in the final by 33 runs, before Hungary secured third place with a comfortable eight-wicket win over Malta.[6]

Squads

 Bulgaria  Czech Republic[7]  Hungary[8]  Luxembourg[9]  Malta[10]  Romania[11]
  • Prakash Mishra (c)
  • Atagul Ahmadhel
  • Jacob Albin
  • Kevin D'Souza
  • Aravinda De Silva
  • Akshay Harikumar
  • Vasil Hristov
  • Mukul Kadyan
  • Ivaylo Katzarski
  • Hristo Lakov
  • Dimo Nikolov
  • Omar Rassol (wk)
  • Bakhtiar Tahiri
  • Delrick Varghese
  • Nikolay Yordanov
  • Arun Ashokan (c)
  • Kushalkumar Mendon (vc)
  • Hilal Ahmad (wk)
  • Naveed Ahmed
  • Sabawoon Davizi
  • Kyle Gilham
  • Sahil Grover (wk)
  • Vyshakh Jagannivasan
  • Kayul Mehta
  • Smit Patel
  • Satyajit Sengupta
  • Ali Waqar
  • Sameera Waththage
  • Sudesh Wickramasekara
  • Abhijeet Ahuja (c)
  • Khaibar Deldar (vc)
  • Abhishek Ahuja (wk)
  • Satyadeep Ashwathnarayana (wk)
  • Mark Fontaine
  • Salman Khan
  • Abishek Kheterpal
  • Zeeshan Kukikhel
  • Sanjay Kumar
  • Nishanta Liyanage
  • Harshvardhan Mandhyan
  • Zahir Mohammed
  • Sandeep Mohandas
  • Asanka Weligamage
  • Ali Yalmaz
  • Joost Mees (c)
  • James Barker
  • Timothy Barker
  • Marcus Cope
  • William Cope
  • Amit Dhingra
  • Mohit Dixit
  • Amit Halbhavi
  • Atif Kamal
  • Pankaj Malav
  • Advyth Manepalli (wk)
  • Ankush Nanda
  • Vikram Vijh
  • Tony Whiteman
  • Bikram Arora (c)
  • Amar Sharma (vc)
  • Waseem Abbas
  • Samuel Aquilina (wk)
  • Basil George
  • John Grima
  • Zeeshan Khan
  • Niraj Khanna
  • Haroon Mughal
  • Bilal Muhammad
  • Indika Perera
  • Suhrid Roy
  • Samuel Stanislaus
  • Varun Thamotharam
  • Lee Tuck
  • Ramesh Satheesan (c)
  • Waqar Abbasi
  • Asif Bevinje
  • Pavel Florin
  • Imran Haider (wk)
  • Ijaz Hussain
  • Aftab Kayani
  • Gohar Manan
  • Dharmendra Manani
  • Satvik Nadigotla (wk)
  • Sivakumar Periyalwar
  • Vasu Saini
  • Abdul Shakoor (wk)
  • Taranjeet Singh
  • Sami Ullah
  • Shantanu Vashisht
  • Cosmin Zavoiu

Group stage

Group A

Teams[12] P W L T NR Pts NRR Status
 Luxembourg 220004+1.692Advanced to the semi-finals
 Malta 211002+1.484
 Bulgaria 202000–3.549Advanced to the 5th place playoff
2 September 2021
09:00
Scorecard
Luxembourg 
187/4 (20 overs)
v
 Bulgaria
125 (18.4 overs)
Timothy Barker 78 (59)
Mukul Kadyan 2/34 (4 overs)
Kevin D'Souza 31 (19)
Mohit Dixit 3/19 (4 overs)
Luxembourg won by 62 runs
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Andrew Begg (Rom) and Steve Tripp (Bel)
Player of the match: Timothy Barker (Lux)
  • Bulgaria won the toss and elected to field.
  • Vasil Hristov, Mukul Kadyan, Omar Rassol (Bul) and Amit Halbhavi (Lux) all made their T20I debuts.

2 September 2021
15:30
Scorecard
Malta 
128/9 (20 overs)
v
 Luxembourg
131/6 (19.4 overs)
Varun Thamotharam 28 (22)
Vikram Vijh 4/19 (3 overs)
Tony Whiteman 55* (54)
Bilal Muhammad 2/22 (4 overs)
Luxembourg won by 4 wickets
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Syed Atif Naqvi (Rom) and Steve Tripp (Bel)
Player of the match: Vikram Vijh (Lux)
  • Luxembourg won the toss and elected to field.
  • Amit Dhingra (Lux) and Basil George (Mlt) both made their T20I debuts.

3 September 2021
12:30
Scorecard
Bulgaria 
112/9 (20 overs)
v
 Malta
113/3 (11.4 overs)
Hristo Lakov 62* (60)
Bilal Muhammad 4/10 (4 overs)
Bikram Arora 49* (39)
Hristo Lakov 2/30 (4 overs)
Malta won by 7 wickets
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Andrew Begg (Rom) and Arun Kumar (Rom)
Player of the match: Bilal Muhammad (Mlt)
  • Bulgaria won the toss and elected to bat.

Group B

Teams[12] P W L T NR Pts NRR Status
 Romania 220004+1.075Advanced to the semi-finals
 Hungary 211002–0.075
 Czech Republic 202000–1.000Advanced to the 5th place playoff
2 September 2021
12:30
Scorecard
Hungary 
165/6 (20 overs)
v
 Czech Republic
160/7 (20 overs)
Zeeshan Kukikhel 75 (49)
Kayul Mehta 3/18 (3 overs)
Sudesh Wickramasekara 58 (41)
Zeeshan Kukikhel 2/27 (3 overs)
Hungary won by 5 runs
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Andrew Begg (Rom) and Syed Atif Naqvi (Rom)
Player of the match: Zeeshan Kukikhel (Hun)
  • Czech Republic won the toss and elected to field.
  • Vyshakh Jagannivasan, Kayul Mehta (Cze), Abhijeet Ahuja, Satyadeep Ashwathnarayana, Khaibar Deldar, Abishek Kheterpal, Zeeshan Kukikhel, Nishanta Liyanage, Harshvardhan Mandhyan, Zahir Mohammed, Sandeep Mohandas, Asanka Weligamage and Ali Yalmaz (Hun) all made their T20I debuts.

3 September 2021
09:00
Scorecard
Romania 
211/8 (20 overs)
v
 Czech Republic
176 (19.3 overs)
Satvik Nadigotla 38 (23)
Kyle Gilham 2/34 (4 overs)
Arun Ashokan 51 (30)
Sami Ullah 3/30 (4 overs)
Romania won by 35 runs
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Syed Atif Naqvi (Rom) and Steve Tripp (Bel)
Player of the match: Sami Ullah (Rom)
  • Romania won the toss and elected to bat.

3 September 2021
15:30
Scorecard
Romania 
195/6 (20 overs)
v
 Hungary
187 (19.5 overs)
Ramesh Satheesan 76 (41)
Harshvardhan Mandhyan 3/33 (4 overs)
Zeeshan Kukikhel 76 (41)
Asif Bevinje 5/30 (4 overs)
Romania won by 8 runs
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Syed Atif Naqvi (Rom) and Steve Tripp (Bel)
Player of the match: Asif Bevinje (Rom)
  • Romania won the toss and elected to bat.
  • Mark Fontaine and Sanjay Kumar (Hun) both made their T20I debuts.
  • Asif Bevinje became the first bowler for Romania to take a five-wicket haul in T20Is.[13]

Playoffs

5th place playoff

4 September 2021
09:00
Scorecard
Bulgaria 
137/6 (20 overs)
v
 Czech Republic
141/3 (16.2 overs)
Hristo Lakov 64* (58)
Naveed Ahmed 3/17 (4 overs)
Vyshakh Jagannivasan 55 (41)
Jacob Albin 1/20 (2 overs)
Czech Republic won by 7 wickets
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Abhay Malyan (Rom) and Steve Tripp (Bel)
Player of the match: Naveed Ahmed (Cze)
  • Bulgaria won the toss and elected to bat.
  • Akshay Harikumar (Bul) made his T20I debut.

Semi-finals

1st Semi-final

4 September 2021
12:30
Scorecard
Luxembourg 
179/6 (20 overs)
v
 Hungary
177/9 (20 overs)
Joost Mees 43 (29)
Zeeshan Kukikhel 3/37 (4 overs)
Satyadeep Ashwathnarayana 41* (19)
Vikram Vijh 3/21 (3.3 overs)
Luxembourg won by 2 runs
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Andrew Begg (Rom) and Abhay Malyan (Rom)
Player of the match: Vikram Vijh (Lux)
  • Hungary won the toss and elected to field.

2nd Semi-final

4 September 2021
15:30
Scorecard
Romania 
202/8 (20 overs)
v
 Malta
166/8 (20 overs)
Taranjeet Singh 91 (57)
Waseem Abbas 5/37 (4 overs)
Bikram Arora 42 (38)
Pavel Florin 2/3 (1 over)
Romania won by 36 runs
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Syed Atif Naqvi (Rom) and Steve Tripp (Bel)
Player of the match: Taranjeet Singh (Rom)

3rd place playoff

5 September 2021
13:00
Scorecard
Malta 
170/5 (20 overs)
v
 Hungary
171/2 (18.2 overs)
Basil George 48 (46)
Abishek Kheterpal 2/35 (4 overs)
Zeeshan Kukikhel 2/35 (4 overs)
Zeeshan Kukikhel 82 (42)
Bikram Arora 1/19 (3.2 overs)
Hungary won by 8 wickets
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Andrew Begg (Rom) and Abhay Malyan (Rom)
Player of the match: Zeeshan Kukikhel (Hun)
  • Hungary won the toss and elected to field.

Final

5 September 2021
09:30
Scorecard
Romania 
156 (19.5 overs)
v
 Luxembourg
123/9 (20 overs)
Satvik Nadigotla 55 (38)
Vikram Vijh 2/24 (3.5 overs)
Advyth Manepalli 22 (19)
Aftab Kayani 2/7 (2 overs)
Romania won by 33 runs
Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County
Umpires: Syed Atif Naqvi (Rom) and Steve Tripp (Bel)
Player of the match: Asif Bevinje (Rom)
  • Romania won the toss and elected to bat.

References

  1. 1 2 "Czech Republic men's squad announced for 6-nation Continental Cup in Romania". Czarsportz. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  2. "Austria triumphant in 5-nation Continental T20I Cup in Romania". Czarsportz. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  3. "Two wins for Luxembourg as Continental Cup underway". Cricket Europe. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  4. "Continental Cup continues in Romania". Cricket Europe. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  5. "Romania win Continental Cup". Cricket Europe. Archived from the original on 4 September 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  6. "Luxembourg and Romania to face off in Continental Cup final". Cricket Europe. Archived from the original on 5 September 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  7. @CzechCricket (27 July 2021). "Czech Men's National Team for the Continental Cup Sep 1 - 6 2021" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  8. "Happy to announce the National squad travelling to Romania to compete in intercontinental cup". Hungarian Cricket (via Facebook). Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  9. "Luxembourg men's squad announced for 6-nation Continental Cup T20I event". Czarsportz. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  10. "Malta men's squad announced for Continental Cup in Romania". Czarsportz. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  11. "Meet Romania's men's squad participating in the Continental Cricket Cup, at Moara Vlasiei, Romania between 02 and 05 September, 2021". Cricket Romania (via Facebook). Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  12. 1 2 "Continental Cup 2021 Table". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  13. "23-year-old bowler spewed 'fire', took 5 wickets for the first time in T20 match". News NCR. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  14. "Global Game: Romania crowned Continental Cup champions with record T20I wins". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
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