Iceland register a huge win over Switzerland in their first ever unofficial ODI

Iceland Cricket has so far been known to crack hilarious jokes on its official Twitter handle. But this time they are in the news for a huge win in their first unofficial One-Day International against Switzerland Cricket. They’ve defeated their opponents by a whopping 215 runs and have taken their first step towards making it big in the game of cricket.

After opting to bat first, Iceland started decently courtesy their openers but both fell without playing a big knock. However, their middle-order batsman Dushan Bandara stood tall and smashed 134 runs off just 105 deliveries which helped them post a daunting total of 330 runs for the loss of 7 wickets after 50 overs. Dushan was well supported by Derick Deonarain with a patient 61-run knock.

In reply, Switzerland were never in the chase. They collapsed under the pressure of ever-increasing required run-rate. Iceland skittled them out for a meagre total of 115 runs in 27 overs thanks to Sadun Lankathilaka’s spell who took 4 wickets. Only 3 Switzerland batsmen managed to cross the 10-run mark which was never going to be enough to gun down the big total.

Commendable effort

They should be commended for this victory given the fact that there are only 35 cricketers in the country and they have their primary jobs to do apart from playing the game. It is an extremely tough job for them to play as Iceland doesn’t receive a lot of sunlight for most parts of the year. Most of the times, the cricketers are forced to play indoors.

According to Inuth, Iceland doesn’t have an official cricket ground either. They play on Football grounds itself which have Astroturf. But the ball bounces more on such grounds and there is a possibility of batsmen getting hurt more often than not. To make things worse, the cricket team has not been affiliated by Government as well.

International Cricket Council (ICC) also cannot aid them financially. The cricket playing nation should have two cricket ground of its own to seek help from the world cricketing body.

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