SPAIN LOSE OUT TO IBERIAN RIVALS PORTUGAL
Spain suffered heartbreak at La Manga today when they were edged out by Portugal with the last ball of the match, wuth the Portuguese claiming victory with 2 wickets to spare. Spain scored 175 in 45.5 overs but the Iberian rivals kept their cool thanks to a superb innings by Nadeem Butt to open their points account in the tournament.
(Opener Mark Spencer with a boundary for Spain)
Spain opened the batting after winning the toss and made a respectable start putting on 69 for the first wicket before Ali was caught to give the Portuguese a boost of confidence. Yesterdays man of the match Pedro Venus joined Spencer at the crease and looked straight away to be in the same vein of form as he was against yesterdays opponents Malta.
Spain were then dealt a double blow with the score on 83 as first Spencer was run out and then 5 balls later Morgan joined him back in the pavillion with out troubling the scorers after being caught in the slips off the spin bowling of Hazare.
Armaghan Khan and Wasim both got good starts but failed to capitalise on them, and with the other batsman going cheaply at regular intervals Spain finished with a par score of 175 all out.
(Pedro Venus at the crease)
Spain got off to a fantastic start and the Portuguese were rocking at 33 for 5. However, a stand of 103 between Nadeem Butt and Hazare changed the course of the game and with useful contributions from Medhi 23 left the Portuguese requiring only 7 runs off 3 overs. Some tight bowling by Nadeem and Spencer gave the Spanish supporters renewed hope but Daia hit the winning run with 1 ball to spare.
(Sam Lupson looking to score down the leg-side)
| Spain Vs Portugal |
| 1-Innings Match Played At La Manga Club, 01-Sep-2009, Euro Division 3 Championship |
| Portugal Win by 2 wkts |
| Toss won by | Spain |
| Spain 1st Innings 10/175 All Out (Overs 45.5) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Min | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| M Spencer | run out N Butt | 33 | 98 | 66 | 4 | 0 | |
| M Ali+ | c J Da Costa | b S Hazare | 35 | 76 | 37 | 2 | 1 |
| L Venus | c J Da Costa | b S Hazare | 27 | 67 | 52 | 1 | 0 |
| J Morgan | c R Daia | b S Hazare | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| G Howe | lbw | b H Shahzad | 2 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| A Khan | c D Maugi | b I Medhi | 19 | 48 | 30 | 2 | 0 |
| W Ur Rehman | lbw | b S Bukhari | 13 | 30 | 36 | 0 | 0 |
| C Munoz-Mills | lbw | b I Medhi | 0 | 15 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| T Iqbal* | not out | 11 | 18 | 15 | 0 | 1 | |
| T Nadeem | c A Saiyad | b I Medhi | 8 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 1 |
| S Lupson | c P Buccimazza | b S Bukhari | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| extras | (b0 lb2 w24 nb1) | 27 | |||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 175 |
| FOW |
| 1-69(M Ali) 2-83(M Spencer) 3-83(J Morgan) 4-96(G Howe) 5-125(L Venus) |
| 6-142(A Khan) 7-156(W Ur Rehman) 8-158(C Munoz-Mills) 9-168(T Nadeem) |
| 10-175(S Lupson) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| M Mirza | 6 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 4 | – |
| D Maugi | 7 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 4 | – |
| S Hazare | 10 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 2 | – |
| H Shahzad | 8 | 1 | 34 | 1 | 6 | – |
| I Medhi | 8 | 1 | 17 | 3 | 3 | – |
| S Bukhari | 6.5 | 0 | 34 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Portugal 1st Innings 8/176 Closed (Overs 49.5) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Min | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| A Saiyad* | c W Ur Rehman | b T Nadeem | 5 | 15 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| S Bukhari | b T Iqbal | 0 | 30 | 16 | 0 | 0 | |
| H Shahzad | c M Ali | b T Nadeem | 4 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| P Buccimazza | c M Ali | b T Nadeem | 1 | 18 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| N Butt | lbw | b T Iqbal | 69 | 154 | 101 | 4 | 3 |
| J Da Costa+ | c W Ur Rehman | b S Lupson | 3 | 14 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| S Hazare | c W Ur Rehman | b T Nadeem | 37 | 152 | 105 | 1 | 0 |
| I Medhi | c W Ur Rehman | b T Nadeem | 23 | 35 | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| M Mirza | not out | 4 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| R Daia | not out | 3 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| D Maugi | dnb | – | |||||
| extras | (b4 lb1 w19 nb3) | 27 | |||||
| TOTAL | 8 wickets for | 176 |
| FOW |
| 1-5(A Saiyad) 2-10(H Shahzad) 3-10(S Bukhari) 4-16(P Buccimazza) 5-33(J Da Costa) |
| 6-136(N Butt) 7-166(S Hazare) 8-172(I Medhi) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| T Iqbal | 10 | 2 | 29 | 2 | 4 | – |
| T Nadeem | 10 | 2 | 32 | 5 | 4 | – |
| S Lupson | 5 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| A Khan | 10 | 1 | 42 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| C Munoz-Mills | 3 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 1 | – |
| W Ur Rehman | 10 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 1 | – |
| M Spencer | 1.5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | – | – |
TABLE AFTER TWO GAMES
P W NR L Pts NRR Israel 2 2 0 0 4 1.77 Isle of Man 2 2 0 0 4 1.25 Spain 2 1 0 1 2 2.01 Portugal 2 1 0 1 2 -0.63 Belgium 2 0 0 2 0 -0.50 Malta 2 0 0 2 0 -3.76