European Championship Division One: Belgium v France – Match Recap
Belgium secured its first victory after defeating http://www.senore.com/Cricket/France-c2899 by 5 wickets in the Group B opening match from the European Championship Division One Twenty20 (T20) Series, staged at the FB Fields, St Clement, on Tuesday, July 19, 2011.
The bout began after team France won the toss and chose to bat. The side opened its first game with top order pair featuring http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abdul-Rehman-c41625 Qureshi.
As for the Belgium response, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-c89347 Muhammad coupled with W Shafiq came out as the opening bowlers for the side.
The pacers managed to earn their first mark after dismissing Sithambaranthan, in the early moments of the game. The player’s wicket was secured after the batsmen made a desperate attempt for a run which resulted in Sithmbaranthan falling short of the crease.
Managing to make a swift comeback, the French were able to bring in some stability to the score after team captain Waseem Bhatti came in to join Qureshi.
However, the skipper could not add in much with the bat after he too left the crease, having been bowled out by the Belgium medium pacer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shafiq-c89281.
With loss of the second wicket for the French, the team had been able to gather a total sum of 24 runs.
However, a few more deliveries into the innings, more trouble came for the French after two quick wickets came up for the side.
The sudden losses brought in some break at the run rate, as the middle order failed to keep up the pace. The Belgium bowlers continued offering blows at the order earning wickets as the procession went.
Finally, with the closing moments of the French innings, the team lost its 10th and final wicket, that was secured on the session’s final ball. The French wrapped up their innings after scoring a total of 114 runs with all wickets lost.
In response, the confident http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nirvam-Shah-c79684 opened the batting session for their team.
With a safe chase ahead of them, the two engaged into a defensive partnership scoring some fair runs for the team.
However, after earning the 27 runs mark, Belgium lost its first player as Sheikh was bowled out by French bowler Williamdeep Singh. The opened delivered a slow performance at the pitch scoring 16 runs from 32 balls.
However, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ali-Raza-Berni-c43616 replacing Sheikh on the crease, the player got into a fair partnership with Shah cruising into earning safe runs for the side.
As the procession went on, Raza’s wicket came up as the second loss for the batting side. The player was bowled out by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Usman-Ghani-Khan-c77431 after making a fair contribution of 20 runs from 17 balls.
Following Raza, a few more minutes into the game, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319 delivered another blow to the Belgium side bringing an end to Shah’s (33) innings; who managed to produce a fruitful innings for the side.
With a couple more losses faced by the Belgium, just in the final deliveries of the innings, the team managed to bring an end to a crucial game, that initially took off as a one sided affair. With just two balls to spare, the Belgium earned a 5 wickets win.
Tags: