2021 Valletta Cup
| Dates | 21 – 24 October 2021 |
|---|---|
| Administrator(s) | Malta Cricket Association |
| Cricket format | Twenty20 International |
| Host(s) |  Malta |
| Champions | Malta |
| Runners-up |  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.
v
|
||
Omar Rassol 63* (36)
Varun Thamotharam 2/30 (4 overs) |
Basil George 41 (27)
Sulaiman Ali 2/26 (3 overs) |
- Bulgaria won the toss and elected to bat.
- Zoheb Malek and Deon Vosloo (Mlt) both made their T20I debuts.
Third-place play-off
v
|
||
Avinash Pai 71 (37)
Prakash Mishra 3/22 (4 overs) |
Aravinda De Silva 62 (40)
Charles Harrison 2/31 (4 overs) |
- Gibraltar won the toss and elected to bat.
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
- ^ a b c d "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.