Croatia v Luxembourg at Corfu – European Championship Division Two Twenty20 (9th place play-off) – Match Update
Bolstered by Taral Desai’s half-ton, Luxembourg claimed a 20-run win over Croatia during their 9th place play-off in the recently wrapped-up European Championship Division Two Twenty20, played in Corfu at the Ropa Valley No 2 Ground on September 8.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Craig-Sinovich-c51749 (4-0-20-2), and Michael Grzinic (4-0-15-2), they were unable to
follow it up with an equally strong batting performance.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Neale-c79015 (4) opened the innings for Luxembourg, but their time at the crease together did not last long, and the opening partnership yielded a mere 11 runs. Sinovich and Michael Grzinic joined forces to dismiss the top order,
with the former claiming the wickets of Neale and Joost Mees (5), and the latter sending both Pattabiraman and Timothy http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Barker-c47300 (16) back to the pavilion.
William Cope (10) continued the mediocre trend, but the team received some respite with the innings of skipper Tony Whiteman (27) and Taral Desai (52), both of whom set up a 6th-wicket 59-run stand. Their combined efforts got Luxembourg up to
116, after which Whiteman and Desai were both sent packing by Musin.
The remainder of the batting order, comprising http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Christopher-Andrew-Evans-c50717 (5*), wicketkeeper batsman Wayne Codd (1), Nishith Gandhi (0), and Piran Merkl (0), remained unremarkable, and by the end of 20 overs, Luxembourg were all out, at 136.
Croatia managed to restrict Luxembourg to a low total, but their batsmen were unable to chase the target, eventually cut off at 116 by the end of 20 overs.
Top-order batsmen http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pero-Kastelan-c81441 (1) and Musin (1) were both dismissed after making minor contributions, by Evans and Desai, respectively. However, opener Michael Grzinic stuck it out at the crease for a 49-run contribution, in addition to setting up a 21-run
partnership with Sinovich (11), followed by a 4th-wicket 36-run stand with wicketkeeper batsman Peter Mackelworth (8).
His contributions got the team up to a total of 85, after which he was stumped by wicketkeeper Codd off Desai. Jeffrey Grzinic (14*) and Vivek Sharma (18*) put in a valiant effort with an unbeaten 31-run stand, but their efforts could not take the team over
the finish line, and Croatia finished at 116, with 6 wickets down – 20 runs short of the target. The loss saw Croatia finishing at number 10, while Luxembourg walked away with the 9th place title.
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