| Dates | 21 – 24 October 2021 |
|---|---|
| Administrator(s) | Malta Cricket Association |
| Cricket format | Twenty20 International |
| Host(s) |  Malta |
| Champions | Malta |
| Runners-up | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Switzerland |
| Participants | 4 |
| Matches | 8 |
| Player of the series |  Avinash Pai |
| Most runs | Louis Bruce (222) |
| Most wickets | Ashwin Vinod (9) |
The 2021 Valletta Cup was a Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket tournament held in Malta between 21 and 24 October 2021.[1] It was the second edition of the Valletta Cup. The matches were played at the Marsa Sports Club in Marsa.[2] The participating teams were the hosts Malta along with Bulgaria, Gibraltar and Switzerland.[1]
This was the first international tournament for Switzerland since the introduction of global T20I status in January 2019,[3] and their re-admittance to the International Cricket Council (ICC) in July 2021.[1] Cricket Switzerland (previously known as the Swiss Cricket Association), had been suspended by the ICC in 2012 due to non-compliance following the formation of a second organization also claiming to oversee cricket in the country.[4] They were one of three nations to gain Associate membership after the ICC's annual general meeting in July 2021.[5][6]
Switzerland finished on top of the round-robin stage with three wins.[7] Malta defeated Switzerland in the final,[8] after Bulgaria defeated Gibraltar in the third-place playoff.[9] After the tournament, Malta and Gibraltar played a rain-affected two-match bilateral T20I series that was shared after one game was lost to the weather and the other finished as a DLS method tie.[10]
Squads
 Bulgaria |
Gibraltar[11] |
Malta |
Switzerland[1] |
|---|---|---|---|
Valletta Cup
Points table
| Team[12] | P | W | L | T | NR | Pts | NRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switzerland |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | +3.067 |
| Malta |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | +1.379 |
| Gibraltar |
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | –1.274 |
| Bulgaria |
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | –3.662 |
Fixtures
v |
||
Heinrich Gericke 64 (25) Avinash Pai 2/28 (4 overs) |
Louis Bruce 57* (55) Bilal Muhammad 1/24 (4 overs) |
- Malta won the toss and elected to bat.
- Aaftab Alam Khan, Kalki Kumar (Mlt), Philip Raikes and Andrew Reyes (Gib) all made their T20I debuts.
v |
||
Louis Bruce 31 (27) Aidan Andrews 3/21 (4 overs) |
Osama Mahmood 58* (46) Charles Harrison 1/19 (2 overs) |
- Gibraltar won the toss and elected to bat.
- Noorkhan Ahmedi, Aidan Andrews, Stefan Franklin, Nicolas Henderson, Asad Mahmood, Osama Mahmood, Anser Mehmood, Ali Nayyer, Idrees Ul Haque, Arjun Vinod and Ashwin Vinod (Sui) all made their T20I debuts.
v |
||
Jacob Albin 19* (30) Aneesh Kumar 3/3 (2.3 overs) |
Arjun Vinod 43* (20) Delrick Varghese 1/21 (1 over) |
- Bulgaria won the toss and elected to bat.
- Ahsan Khan, Andrey Lilov (Bul) and Aneesh Kumar (Sui) all made their T20I debuts.
v |
||
Avinash Pai 107* (52) Sulaiman Ali 2/38 (4 overs) |
Hristo Lakov 80 (63) James Fitzgerald 2/37 (4 overs) |
- Bulgaria won the toss and elected to field.
- Dave Robeson (Gib) made his T20I debut.
- Avinash Pai became the first player for Gibraltar to score a century in T20Is.[13]
v |
||
Asad Mahmood 33 (25) Bikram Arora 3/20 (4 overs) |
Bilal Muhammad 35* (17) Ashwin Vinod 3/30 (4 overs) |
- Switzerland won the toss and elected to bat.
- Matthew Martin (Sui) made his T20I debut.
Third-place play-off
Final
v |
||
Bikram Arora 42 (39) Aneesh Kumar 2/26 (4 overs) |
Idrees Ul Haque 42 (23) Varun Thamotharam 3/25 (4 overs) |
- Malta won the toss and elected to bat.
Bilateral series
| Gibraltarian cricket team in Malta in 2021–22 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
| ||
| Malta | Gibraltar | ||
| Date | 25 October 2021 | ||
| Captains | Bikram Arora | Avinash Pai | |
| Twenty20 International series | |||
| Results | 2-match series drawn 0–0 | ||
| Most runs | Varun Thamotharam (50) | Kieron Ferrary (35) | |
| Most wickets |
Waseem Abbas (1) Bilal Muhammad (1) | Louis Bruce (4) | |
1st T20I
2nd T20I
v |
||
Varun Thamotharam 50 (27) Louis Bruce 4/13 (3 overs) |
Kieron Ferrary 35* (25) Waseem Abbas 1/15 (2 overs) |
- Gibraltar won the toss and elected to field.
- No further play was possible due to rain. Gibraltar had been set a revised target of 98 runs from 12 overs.
- Jojo Thomas (Mlt) and Kieron Ferrary (Gib) both made their T20I debuts.
References
- 1 2 3 4 "T20 international series in Malta". Cricket Switzerland. Archived from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
- ↑ "Swiss men's team to make T20I debut in 4-nation quadrangular tournament in Malta". Czarsportz. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
- ↑ "All T20 matches between ICC members to get international status". International Cricket Council. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
- ↑ "Cricket Switzerland bidding to regain ICC associate member status - eight years after suspension". Inside the Games. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
- ↑ "Get to know the ICC's three newest Members". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
- ↑ "Three new ICC Members, Russia suspended, Zambia terminated". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
- ↑ "Valletta Cup - iT20 series in Malta". Cricket Switzerland. Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
- ↑ "Malta Cricket beat Switzerland to lift Valletta Cup at Marsa Oval". Times of Malta. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
- ↑ "Malta crowned 2021 Valletta Cup champions". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
- ↑ "Gibraltar cricket match against Malta ends in tie due to rain". Gibraltar Chronicle. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
- ↑ "Squad announcement alert". Gibraltar Cricket (via Facebook). Retrieved 2 October 2021.
- ↑ "Valletta Cup 2021/22 Table". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
- ↑ "Centuries in Twenty20 International cricket – innings by innings". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 23 October 2021.