2021 Valletta Cup
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Malta| 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]
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 |
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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.
