December 10, 2024
At the end of an exciting two days of cricket at the beautiful but windswept Montjuic Stadium, Spain emerged as table toppers in the triangular tournament, squeezing out a very good Italy side on net run rate. It is the sign of a good side that, having not played their best cricket in the first two games against Italy, when it came to the crunch game Spain produced a ruthlessly clinical performance to beat Italy and seal the title. It was the bonus point wins against Croatia that kept Spain in contention, despite having lost twice to Italy, and Spain’s superior net run rate, +5.869 compared to Italy’s +2.222, meant that Sunday finished with joint captains Awais Ahmed and Lorne Burns lifting the trophy. Having suffered at the hands of net run rate in Guernsey during the T20I World CupQualifiers, after a washed out game against Denmark prevented qualification for the final against Guernsey, it was nice to be on the other side of the fence and to finish a memorable year for Spain with another trophy.
Day 1 – Saturday 7th December
If there was any doubt about the size of the challenge that Spain would face over the weekend’s competition, this was dispelled immediately in Game 1 on Saturday withItaly’s destruction of Croatia. After posting what seemed a respectable 149-6 in their 10 overs, the main contribution being a bright opening partnership between skipper Christy O’Brien (52 off 15) and Charles Bevin (34 off 15), the Italian openers knocked this off in the 7th over thanks to a brutal 22 ball century from Zain Ali, the Italian captain. Sensational ball striking resulted in Ali finishing with 124 off 26 including 16 sixes, Damith Kosala (25 off 11) ably assisting to grant Italy a 10 wicket win.
Game 2 saw Spain take on Croatia and things did not get any easier for the Croatian bowlers as Muhammad Ihsan struck the ball fiercely to get the Spanish time off to a flier with 57 off 14 including 8 maximums. Good contributions from Gurvinder Singh Bajwa 24 off 10 and captain Awais Ahmed 21 off 7 set the innings up for an onslaught at the end from the elegant left-hander, Adnan Tahir (38 off 15) and the hard-hitting Sheraz Iqbal (50 off 16) and Spain posted an imposing 206 for 4. Man of the Match Iqbal carried on where he left off deceiving Charles Bevin with a slower to have him caught and bowled in the first over and then dismissing fellow opener O’Brien with a lovely delivery that just clipped the off-bail. A sharp stumping from Alec Davidson-Soler, who kept superbly through the day, gave Cris Gwilliam Lopez a wicket first ball and he finished with a very economical 1-15 off his 2 overs. Fellow spinners Lorne Burns (1-20 off 2 overs) and Ameer Hamza 2-5 off 1 over) took the other wickets to fall as Croatia finished on 89-6 off their 10 overs to give Spain a comprehensive victory by 117 runs.
It could be argued that these first two games were the warm-ups for Game 3, which brought the main act and the first of the three games between the big guns. Unsurprisingly, after winning the toss, Italy opted to chase placing the on uson Spain, who started brightly with Ihsan cutting the first ball ferociously for 6. However, a mix up led to Bajwa being run out in the first over and then Ihsan and Tahir were both caught in the deep after miscuing, and Spain finished the power play at 26 for 3. Mati Ur Rehman (31 off 13) and Awais Ahmed (19 off9) seemed to be putting Spain back in contention but both fell to spinners Damith Kosala and Onkar Singh respectively, and Singh was particularly effective in restricting the scoring, finishing with 2 for 19 off his 2 overs. Skipper Lorne Burns (15 off 9) and Alec Davidson-Soler (24 off 11) shared a partnership at the end and the innings finished in style with a Muhammad Atif maximum, but 131-7 felt under par. Both innings started with a 6, but where Spain faltered, Italy dominated the power play, which was perhaps the difference in the game, finishing 52-1 off 3. Zain Ali again showed his class and power to finish with 64 off 20. His dismissal, caught behind by Davidson-Soler from an excellent slower ball from the skilful Atif, gave Spain a glimmer of hope and when Hughes-Piñán had Zain Naqvi caught on the boundary for a well-made 40 off 18, there seemed a chance of a comeback. Ultimately though, Spain had not scored enough runs and a first ball straight six from Onkar Singh meant that Italy won the game by 4 wickets with 7 balls left. Notable mention to Murad Ali who finished with 1-17 off his 2 overs, the wicket coming in the first over thanks to a brilliant diving effort at cover from Burns.
Game 4, Croatia v Italy, started in dramatic fashion, Scott Bevin bowling the in-form Zain Ali first ball and following this up by having Zain Naqvi caught behind, to leave the Italians at a precarious 7-2. However, a superb unbroken partnership from Ishan Shaminda (78 off 34) and Onkar Singh (76 off 24) restored equilibrium and they finished with an imposing 180-2 off their allocation. The Croatians also got off to an excellent start with the bat and at 47 without loss after the 3 over power play they were well in the game. It was Singh who was again the difference though and the pick of the bowlers dismissing O’Brien (33 off 12) and Davidovic in the 4th over and finishing with 2-17off his 2 overs. Charles Bevin finished with a creditable 64 off 26 and Hariprasad Sathdeevi added 22 off 11 but Croatia did not threaten the target and finished 133 for 5 to lose by 47 runs.
After a cold but sunny start in the morning, the wind picked up through the day to the point where the bails had to be removed in Game 5, as they, along with anything not pinned down, kept blowing away. To combat this gale force wind, Spain bowled 5 consecutive overs of left arm spin, surely a first for T10 cricket, to stifle the beginning of the Croatian innings after they had won the toss and chosen to bat. After surviving a difficult caught and bowled half-chance first ball which ended up going for 4, O’Brien was deceived by a Hughes-Pinan (1-23 off 2) spinning delivery second ball and was well caught at backward point by Gwilliam-Lopez. Ameer Hamza (2-13 off 2) then accounted for both Davidovic and Charles Bevin, snaffled up by Davidson-Soler and Ihsan respectively, before Gwilliam-Lopez (1-16 off 2) got in on the act to have the dangerous Scott Bevin superbly caught by Dani Long-Martinez, who had to wait an age for the ball to come spiralling down and did well to hang on. Babar Khan (1-20 off 2) finished the bowling for Spain alongside Muhammad Atif (0-19 off 2) which meant that Spain had bowled 8 overs of spin. Croatia finished on 94-6 from 10 overs and afterMuhammad Babar (32 off 11) and fellow opener and Man of the Match, Dani LongMartinez (35 off 14) got Spain off to an excellent start in reply, the game never looked in doubt. A quick fire 10 off 3 from Khan and 14 from 4 from SherazIqbal meant that Spain won with 4 and a half overs to spare finishing with 99-3 and another bonus point victory.
This meant that Day 1 finished with Italy in pole position with three wins out of three, but everything to play for on Day 2 with Spain hoping that victory in the Italy rematch, Game 6 would leave Game 9 as a shoot-out for the trophy.
Day 2 Sunday 8th December
Day 2 started bright and early on a cold morning in Barcelona with Italy winning the toss and inserting Spain in what proved to me the most close fought of all the contests over the weekend. Again, contrasting power plays were perhaps the key factor in the game, Spain finishing 20-2 after their 3 overs, restricted by excellent bowling from openers Arslan Muhammad (1-16 off 2 overs) and Achintha Naththandige (2-25 off 2 overs). Spain’s innings stuttered with Adnan Tahir, Awais Ahmed and Muhammad Ihsan all dismissed in the early twenties but came to life thanks to a fantastic exhibition of ball striking from Sheraz Iqbal.Arriving at the crease with the score on 67 for 4 after 6.4 overs, Iqbal dragged Spain back into the game with a superb 60 off only 16 balls, including 9 sixes, allowing Spain to post 137 for 6. Despite losing key batter, Zain Ali second ball to a good catch on the long off boundary from Muhammad Atif off the pick of the bowlers, Asad Rabbani (1-21 off 2 overs), Italy were 42 for 1 after the 3 over power play and on track for victory. A great fightback led by Rabbani and backed up by wickets from Sebastian Hughes-Piñán and Mati Ur Rehman put Spain in the driving seat with Italy 67 for 3 after 6 overs, requiring 70 off the last4. However, an unbeaten 58 off 17 balls, including 9 sixes, from the hard-hitting Zain Naqvi made light work of this target and Italy won by 6 wickets with 2 balls to spare.
Italy won the toss and chose to bat in Game 7 against Croatia, skipper Zain Ali (69 off25) getting his side off to an excellent start and Onkar Singh finishing off at the death (63* off 22), to leave Italy on 164 for 3 at the 10 over mark. After a dreadful start which saw them 24-4 at one stage, Croatia did well to recover thanks to Christy O’Brien (61 off 21) and at the end of their 10 overs they reached 139 for 7 to lose by only 25 runs. Crucially this meant that Croatia did not get the bonus point, leaving Spain with a chance of finishing top if they could secure a bonus point win against Croatia in Game 8 and then beatItaly in the final game of the series.
Knowing what they needed to do really focused the Spanish side. Having fought so well in the previous game, Croatia were once again undone by Spain’s spin in Game 8. Excellent bowling from the trio of left arm spinners, Sebastian Hughes-Piñán (2-17 off 2), Cris Gwilliam-Lopez (1-14 off 2) and Ameer Hamza (2 for 6 off 2) combined with miserly spells from senior players Lorne Burns (1 for 9 off 2) and Man of the Match Muhammad Atif(3 for 6 off 2), stopped the Croatian innings ever getting going and they stumbled to 54 for 9 in their 10 overs. Determined to ensure that the bonus point win was achieved, Muhammad Ihsan dismantled the chase with an explosive 48 off 10ball and the target was reached after only 13 balls with Dani Long Martinez (7off 3) also unbeaten to give Spain a 10 wicket victory.
With both sides knowing that Spain’s superior run rate meant that Game 9 was effectively a winner takes all final, Spain had no hesitation in asking Italy to bat after winning the toss. Italy were well placed after the power play at 52 for 0, but again Muhammad Atif was outstanding taking the crucial wicket of Zain Ali and only conceding 1 run in the fourth over and finishing with a match defining 2for 10 off his 2 overs and another deserved Man of the Match award. All of the other Spanish bowlers did a good job in containing the Italian batters, Hamza(2 for 30 off 2), Ali (2 for 28 off 2 and Iqbal (1-29 off 2) the other wicket takers, and it was only Zain Naqvi (60 off 24) who kept the Italian side in the game. Spain captain Awais Ahmed would have been very happy with restrictingItaly to 131 for 8 in their 10 overs and in the three head to heads, both teams seemed much happier chasing then trying to set a total. Saving their best until last, Spain grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck in the power play reaching 59 without loss thanks to brilliant batting from the destructiveMuhammad Babar, 54 off 14 including 7 sixes and the evergreen Muhammad Ihsan, 42 off 17 including 6 sixes. Fittingly, it was left to captain Awais Ahmed (27off 11) to bring the game home and gift Spain a comprehensive 8 wicket victory with 15 balls left.
a special mention should be made for the resilience Rico Phull showed in the ‘Cube’, battling the incessant wind on his own, and still managing to keep the commentary going! I am sure that he will be delighted to see that the weather is set fair for tomorrow and another exciting day for cricket in Spain.
Q. Piñan Hughes
Image courtesy SUR Malaga
