LA MANGA SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND TWENTY20 CROWN

LA MANGA DEFEND TWENTY20 SUCCESSFULLY

In a nail biting finish La Manga successfully defended their Twenty-20 trophy by winning a one over eliminator after they had tied the main event with follow finalists UK Asians

The action had started early Friday morning when the ten team competition got under way. This years tournament was bolstered by the attendance of several well known celebrities. From the victorious Surrey team, that the week before had just won their national CB40 competition, there were the players Gareth Batty, Rory Hamilton-Brown, Tom Maynard, the conditioning coach Ashley Wright and the team physio Dean Conway.

Luke Wright, the Sussex and England all rounder also graced the event, as did former Lancashire and India player Farook Engineer and former England women´s captain Rachel Heyhoe-Flint. Last but not least the main guest speaker for the gala dinner on the Saturday evening was Falklands hero Simon Weston.

The first games on Friday started at 9.30 am sharp with Grasshoppers from Northern Ireland matching up against the Belgian team Ostend. Grasshoppers edged the game to take the points. Down on the bottom pitch Andalucia were too strong for New City, a team from Milton Keynes.

Games two of the day saw La Manga and Milton Keynes secure comfortble victories over Chorleywood and The Barmy Army respectively. UK Asians played back to back games which resulted in two victories to put them top on day one, beating Valencia Green and Barmy Army in the process. Ostend got their first win on the board beating New City and La Manga joined UK Asians at the top of the table by beating Andalucia easily in the last match of the day.

Saturday started early again with Grasshoppers beating the Barmy Army and UK Asians were the first team to confirm their position in the semi-finals with their third consecutive victory over Milton Keynes. La Manga joined UK Asians by beating the luckless Milton Keynes and then Chorleywood won the battle for the minor places overcoming Andalucia.

Ostend made it two wins out of three and qualified for the semi final stages courtesy of a superior run rate whilst Valencia Green set up a showdown for the last semi final berth with Grasshoppers in the last game of the day.  

As the two teams entered the pitch the light was fading fast and the tournament referee took the decision to reduce the game to 12 overs. The Irish side batted first and posted a strong total of 112. Green tried hard to chase it down but ended their 12 overs just a few runs shy of 3 figures.

La Manga, UK Asians and Grasshoppers won all their 3 games but La Manga finished in top spot courtesy of a superior run rate to contest a semi final game against 4th place Ostend. The other semi final matched up Grasshoppers and UK Asians.  

The Saturday evening the teams were treated to a fantastic gala dinner at the Prince Felipe Hotel with guest speakers Simon Weston and Farook Engineer wooing the audience with some great stories. Sarah Botham, Ian´s daughter also organised a raffle that made thousands of Euros for leukemia research

Sunday morning saw UK Asians and La Manga win their respective semi finals quite easily and the professionals did a coaching session and signed autographs for the Spanish Juniors.

The final attracted a large crowd who were not disappointed with the quality of the cricket. UK Asians batted first and La Manga would have been pleased to have their opponents at 40 for 3. However a 113 run stand for the 4th wicket between Waseem and skipper Tausef ,enabled the Asian side to finish with 154 for 5 off their allocated overs. 

In reply, La Manga started brightly and looked in control, especially with Munib at the crease, As the game progressed Asians clawed their way back into the game and a fantastic last over by Imran resulted in La Manga losing Neil Brook to the penultimate ball with 3 still required to win.

After a quick discussion George Wambeek, the La Manga skipper, entrusted Spanish Under 19 star Ravi Panchal with the task of scoring the 3 runs. A shot to the open space at long off saw the La Manga batsmen scramble for 2 runs and a tied match. 

After a prolonged discussion both teams decided on a one over eliminator. Adnan bowled the over for UK Asians with Farhat and Munib taking the crease for the hosts. Despite losing 2 wickets in the over, La Manga posted 10 runs.

Farhat also took the ball for La Manga and his spin and guile excelled as UK Asians folded under the pressure and could only manage 5 runs from their 6 balls, losing 2 wickets in the process.

La Manga managed to retain the trophy they won last year by the narrowest of margins but cricket in Spain was the winner as the curtain came down on another successful La Manga Twenty20 torneo. 

 Final Scorecard