Day one of the Spanish National Finals went the way of the Cataluyna champions Pak-I-Care when they easily saw off the threat of the ECCL representatives Levante in the forty over competition.
Levante won the toss and elected to put the champions from the North of the country into bat. The wicket of Abid in the third over gave the team from Valencia an early breakthrough, but they had to wait until the 16th over for their second wicket as Yasin and Babar took a liking to the Levante bowling.
The pair put on 102 before Babar departed for 54 to put Pak-i-Care in command of the game. They never really relinquished their stranglehold on the match and ended their innings with the impressive total of 355 for 8. Yasin completed his century and his team mates Sheraz and Faisal Shah also added half centuries.
In reply Levante got off to the worst possible start, losing both openers with just one run (a wide) on the scoreboard. By the fifth over Levante were reeling at 14 for 5. A sixth wicket partnership between Furqan (30) and Sharad (10) worth 44 runs gave the scoreline a little more credibility but Levante finally succumbed in the 20th over, all out for just 85.
For Pak-I-Care, the junior Atif Muhammad took four wickets for 17, as he bowled well in tandem with Kamran, who bagged three wickets himself for just 19 runs.
The comprehensive 270 run victory left Levante searching for answers and looking to pick themselves up for tomorrows encounter with Minhaaj CC Barcelona) in the best of three T10 series. The winners of that will go on to represent Spain in next summer´s ECL competition, which will be played at La Manga resort in May 2020.
