Australia win Indoor World Cup in Sri Lanka

By: Shamil Amit

Australia’s players continued their dominance in the 12th Indoor Cricket World Cup as they made a clean sweep by winning all four titles, the Men’s Open, Women’s Open, Under-22 Boys and Under-22 Girls’ events at the Australia Sports Complex and the newly built U Pro Arena at Thalawathugoda in Sri Lanka.

In the Men’s Open, the defending champions Australia make mincemeat of their opponents New Zealand who in fact had to play second fiddle in all the four finals by recording a convincing 37 runs that made them clinch the title for the 12th successive time. In the Women’s Open category the Australians coasted to another comfortable win by 42 runs against New Zealand.

In the two Under 22 tournaments too the Australians reigned supreme by pulling off easy wins with the boys securing an 11 runs win and the girls recording an easy 31 runs win with New Zealand being the victim in both. Host Sri Lanka too tasted some success by coming out as the third best team in the Men’s Open and emerging as the Plate champions in the women’s segment with a close three runs win over the UAE.

The UAE clinched the Men’s Open Plate title with a 15 runs win over England. The concluded 12th World Indoor Cricket Championship, co-hosted by the World Indoor Cricket Council and the Ceylon Indoor Cricket Association had the participation of nine countries, Australia, New Zealand. England, USA, South Africa, Singapore, UAE and host Sri Lanka with 31 teams in the four categories and a whopping 170 matches being played in the seven days of the tournament. 

FINAL RESULTS:

Cup Championship:

• Men’s Open - Australia 83 beat New Zealand 46.
• Women’s Open - Australia 117 beat New Zealand 75.
• U-22 Men’s Open - Australia 125 beat New Zealand 114.
• U-22 Women’s Open - Australia 100 beat New Zealand 69.

Plate Championship:

• Men’s Open - UAE 124 beat England 61.
• Women’s Open - Sri Lanka 68 beat UAE 65.