The Spanish Men’s National team played six matches against Croatia this weekend in Zagreb and emerged victorious from all of the games.

With flight delays, the majority of the squad did not arrive in the Balkan capital until the early hours of Friday morning. With two games scheduled for that day the Spanish line up had an unusual look about it for match one.

First up was the solitary T10 ECI game which was an appetizer for the five T20I ranking matches that were to follow. The European Cricket Network kindly live-streamed the half-dozen games and Spanish fans were not disappointed by the performances of “La Selección”

After winning the toss stand-in skipper Yasir Ali invited the hosts to field. It immediately became apparent that the pitch was susceptible to uneven bounce and that batting would have a further degree of difficulty than normal.

Daniel Long Martinez and Shafaat Ail Syed opened the batting, giving the Spaniards the right handed/left handed combination at the top of the order that they like to implement.

Unfortunately, both fell without getting into double figures but Sheraz Iqbal showed his intent by hitting 17 off just 9 balls. Charlie Rumistrzewicz was even more explosive hitting 20 off the same number of deliveries.

However, the star of the batting show was undoubtedly Atif Mehmood who blasted an unbeaten 47. He was well supported by Muhammad Atif (25) in a partnership worth 74 in just under four overs. Spain eventually finished with a total of 146 for six from their ten over allocation.

In reply, Croatia showed quality in patches, but struggled with the pace, spin and accuracy of the Spanish bowling attack. The visitors used seven different bowlers with five of them taking wickets. The hosts finally ended their innings on 85 for six, giving Spain victory by 61 runs.

Contest two was the start of the five game T20I matches with ranking points available for both teams.

ChristianMunoz- Mills came in to skipper the side after getting some rest in the morning.Spain again won the toss but this time they decided to field first.

Losing the early wicket of Hashmi in the fourth over Croatia seemed to be motoring nicely, reaching 66 for the loss of just one wicket by the end of the ninth over.

Skipper Mills turned to Yasir Ali and he took two wickets in consecutive balls to change the outlook to 71 for 3 at the half way stage of the Croatia innings.The next ten overs belonged to Spain, and Yasir in particular, as the batting side limped to 125 for nine from their 20 overs. Ali finished with there markable bowling figures of six for 28 from his four overs.

Spain’s response was clinical and they had the match put to bed before the sixteenth over was completed. Yasir confirmed his man of the match status by top scoring with 41. Christian Munoz-Mills (27 not out) and Hamza Saleem Dar made healthy contributions as the visitors secured a four wicket victory.

Thunder stormson Friday night took some of the nasty edge off the wicket and outfield, but it still proved to be a testing environment for the players. Spain once again elected to field and had Croatia reeling at 12 for 6 before the fifth over was completed. Sam Houghton hit a defiant 20 not out but his side were skittled out for just 52 in 16.4 overs.

Adeel Raja and Atif Mehmood spearheaded the bowling attack at the top of the innings and took five of the Croatia wickets to fall. Two scalps for Lorne Burns, two runouts and a lbw shout upheld off Hamza Saleem Dar’s fourth ball of the match completed the rout.

Spain went into T10 mode to finish the match early and overtook the Croatia score in just six overs, with six wickets in hand.

An equally comprehensive victory was ensured in Game 3 as the Croatians were once again bowled out very cheaply. This time they mustered up a total of 47, with their last eight wickets falling for a combined total of 19 runs.

Spinner Charlie Rumistrzewicz came back from a tough day with the ball on day one to show is true colours and finished with five wickets for just seven runs in an excellent display of left arm spin bowling.

Spain took the same approach as the morning game and switched to T10 mode to surpass the Croatia score. They only lost two wickets in their run chase, getting over the line with 71 balls remaining.

With the series win confirmed Spain entered the final day seeking two further victories to establish a clean sweep.

Losing the toss for the first time, the Spaniards were invited to bat first. The opportunity to utilise the full twenty overs was not squandered and the visitors amassed 205 for 5 from their 120 balls.

Hamza Saleem Dar with 70 not out and Muhammad Ihsan with 57 were the main contributors to the Spanish total.

Croatia put up a plucky response to make 65 all out. Sebastian Hughes-Piñan at the age of 18 years and 85 days became the fifth youngest player to take five wickets in ranked T20I international. Paceman Adeel Raja joined in with three wickets at the top of the innings, and leg spinner Lorne Burns, who was a thorn in the side of the Croatian batsmen all series chipped in with two.

The ultimate match of the series proved to be the most clinical of Spain’s efforts. They posted the formidable total of 230 for four in their twenty overs. Debutant Dani Long-Martinez blasted 79 from just 50 balls in a contribution that included seven fours and four sixes.

After that Hamza Saleem Dar became only the seventh person in history to score a half century in T20I matches in 15 balls or less. He joined illustrious company in the shape of Yurav Singh and Colin Munro.

Down trodden, the Croatians were bowled out for 69 in the 18th over. There were two wickets each for Atif Mehmood, Mohammad Atif, Lorne Burns, Charlie Rumistrzewicz and Yasir Ali.

After the series Mate Jukic of Croatia cricket said “Our boys enjoyed the tournament. Obviously, Spain were too classy in all aspects and it definitely gives our boys here in Croatia an insight and experience to play with highly skilled international players from Spain. It is something the boys will treasure always and it shows our Federation that a lot of work needs to be done in Croatia”

Corey Rutgers was very happy with the results over the weekend and had special praise for the T20I debutants Dani Long-Martinez, Sebastian Hughes-Piñan and Alec Davidson-Soler. He simply said the debutants were “brilliant” and ”all of the boys are delivering”.

As a result of the series victory, Spain move up two places in the ICC T20I rankings to 29th in the world. Later in the month they head to Guernsey for the ICC T20 World Cup Sub Regional Qualifiers Group C.

They play Cyprus first, followed by the Czech Republic, Denmark and Greece. Depending on where they finish in their group section they will play the country that finishes in the same position from the other five team group. That could be either Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Guernsey or Malta. Only one country qualifies to the next stage of the competition. The matches take place between the 21st and 28th of August. The squad will meet up in Barcelona for a couple of days before flying out to the Channel Islands.

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