SPAIN BEAT MALTA BY 203 RUNS FOR A WINNING START IN THE TOURNAMENT
Spain confirmed their tag as one of the favourites for the title with a 203 runs victory over Malta at Sporting Alfas. Their total of 294 for nine has set the standard in the highest stakes and all of Spain´s top order batsmen contributed to the large score. Man of the match Pedro Venus top scored with 67, and Jim Morgan and Armaghan Khan both scored 38 runs apiece.
The hosts also showed they had depth in their line up as the 10th wicket partnership put on 64 undefeated for the last wicket. All rounder Christian Munoz scored 24 not out and No 11 Sam Lupson smashed 45 off just 19 balls with five fours and three sixes.
Malta’s reply got off to the worst possible start, losing a wicket to the first ball of the innings, Tanveer Iqbal took that one and added three more in his first six overs. With Malta on 29 for five, Iqbal was taken out of the attack and Andrew Naudi and John Callus, batting with a runner because of a hamstring injury, almost doubled the score before both batsmen were out in successive overs.
Michael Smith and Ronnie Sacco added 36 for the eighth wicket but they only delayed the inevitable and the last three wickets fell for one run to give Spain victory with more than 15 overs to spare. The three winners all have a chance to make it two wins out of two on Tuesday. Spain play Portugal and Israel face Malta in La Manga while the Isle of Man and Belgium journey to Sporting Alfas.
| Spain Vs Malta |
| 1-Innings Match Played At Sporting Alfas CC, 31-Aug-2009, Euro Division 3 Championship |
| Spain Win by 203 runs |
| Toss won by | Spain |
| Umpires | L Goldsmith; L Fourie |
| Scorers | P Naudi; J Howden |
| Spain 1st Innings 9/294 Closed (Overs 50) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Min | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| M Spencer | c J Grima | b A Naudi | 18 | 50 | 32 | 3 | 0 |
| M Ali+ | c A Spiteri | b M Smith | 17 | 9 | 10 | 2 | 1 |
| L Venus | st J Grima | b A Spiteri | 67 | 125 | 95 | 6 | 0 |
| J Morgan | c M Sacco | b A Spiteri | 38 | 63 | 48 | 3 | 0 |
| G Howe | run out | 20 | 36 | 28 | 1 | 1 | |
| A Khan | c M Caruana | b A Naudi | 38 | 39 | 28 | 3 | 2 |
| W Ur Rehman | b J Callus | 0 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| T Iqbal* | c J Shah | b J Callus | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| C Munoz-Mills | not out | 24 | 34 | 29 | 3 | 0 | |
| T Nadeem | c&b J Callus | 1 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| S Lupson | not out | 45 | 22 | 19 | 5 | 3 | |
| extras | (b0 lb3 w22 nb1) | 26 | |||||
| TOTAL | 9 wickets for | 294 |
| FOW |
| 1-21(M Ali) 2-59(M Spencer) 3-138(J Morgan) 4-166(L Venus) 5-197(G Howe) |
| 6-205(W Ur Rehman) 7-214(T Iqbal) 8-225(A Khan) 9-230(T Nadeem) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| A Naudi | 9 | 0 | 51 | 2 | 4 | – |
| M Smith | 7 | 0 | 47 | 1 | 7 | – |
| M Caruana | 8 | 0 | 53 | 0 | 1 | – |
| M Sacco | 10 | 0 | 40 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| A Spiteri | 10 | 0 | 66 | 2 | 1 | – |
| J Callus | 6 | 0 | 34 | 3 | 5 | – |
| Malta 1st Innings 10/91 All Out (Overs 34.3) |
| Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Min | Bls | 4s | 6s |
| C Naudi | c M Ali | b T Iqbal | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| F Spiteri | c M Spencer | b T Nadeem | 5 | 33 | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| A Spiteri | c A Khan | b T Iqbal | 3 | 19 | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| A Naudi | c M Ali | b C Munoz-Mills | 21 | 72 | 46 | 2 | 0 |
| J Shah | c C Munoz-Mills | b T Iqbal | 1 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| M Caruana* | c M Ali | b T Iqbal | 2 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| J Callus | c C Munoz-Mills | b S Lupson | 11 | 36 | 20 | 1 | 0 |
| M Smith | c M Ali | b W Ur Rehman | 12 | 55 | 39 | 0 | 0 |
| R Sacco | b W Ur Rehman | 20 | 59 | 54 | 1 | 1 | |
| M Sacco | c M Ali | b W Ur Rehman | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| J Grima+ | not out | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| extras | (b0 lb2 w14 nb0) | 16 | |||||
| TOTAL | 10 wickets for | 91 |
| FOW |
| 1-0(C Naudi) 2-9(A Spiteri) 3-17(F Spiteri) 4-22(J Shah) 5-29(M Caruana) |
| 6-54(J Callus) 7-54(A Naudi) 8-90(M Smith) 9-90(M Sacco) 10-91(R Sacco) |
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | wd | nb |
| T Iqbal | 6 | 2 | 11 | 4 | 4 | – |
| T Nadeem | 8 | 3 | 17 | 1 | 2 | – |
| S Lupson | 4 | 0 | 21 | 1 | 1 | – |
| C Munoz-Mills | 4 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | – |
| A Khan | 4 | 0 | 9 | 0 | – | – |
| W Ur Rehman | 7.3 | 0 | 26 | 3 | 5 | – |
| M Spencer | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – |