Spain v Sweden at Corfu – European Championship Division Two Twenty20 (Semi final) – Match Update
A thrilling European Championship Division Two Twenty20 semi final, played between Spain and Sweden at the Marina Ground in Corfu on September 7, culminated in a narrow one-wicket victory for Sweden, with zero deliveries remaining.
Spain won the toss and elected to bat first, opening their innings with Armaghan http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tariq-Ali-c92775 (35). The opening partnership yielded a solid 61 runs, but came to an abrupt end with the dismissal of Tariq Ali who was caught out by Sweden skipper
Yasir http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ikram-c64153 off Aman Momand (4-0-24-2).
His successor, wicketkeeper batsman James http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sandeep-Sharma-c88505, became Momand’s second victim of the day.
Christian Munoz-Mills (23) and skipper Mark Spencer (23), however, steadied the innings, contributing a 4th-wicket 46-run partnership, which got their side up to 119, after which the skipper was sent packing by Wakil Jalali.
Munoz-Mills and Sajad Ali (0) both fell prey to Azam Khalil (4-0-41-2), but Farhat Mahmood (29*) and Gary Crompton (27*) powered on, setting up an unbeaten 63-run stand, which enabled Spain to post a final total of 190, at the expense of 6 wickets, by the
end of 20 overs.
Sweden then embarked on what proved to be a thrilling chase, troubled as their batsmen were by Spain’s Spencer (3-0-30-4) and Sajad Ali (3-0-32-2).
Openers http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-c89347 Mustafa (20) and wicketkeeper batsman Sadat Sidiqi (7) got their side off to a steady start, posting a combined total of 33 runs on the board before Tanveer Iqbal sent Shahid Mustafa back to the pavilion.
Talat Nadeem intervened soon after to send Sadat Sidiqi packing, but Ashik Imtiaz (23) and Sunny Sharma (10) dug their heels in to stop the flurry of falling wickets. Their partnership for the 3rd wicket yielded 31 runs, but could not proceed
further owing to the dismissals of both batsmen at the hands of Sajad Ali.
The high point of the innings was the 69-run 5th-wicket partnership between skipper Ikram (28) and Christopher Tebbutt (59). Both batsmen were sent back to the pavilion by Spencer, and from there onwards, Sweden relied on small, quick contributions
from the middle and lower order – including Azam Khalil (11), Khalid Ahmad (8), Momand (8), Jalali (7*), and Sandeep Sharma (1*) – to get them over the finish line, eventually reaching 191.
Sweden’s last-ball victory, with one-wicket remaining, propelled them to the tournament final, which they will be playing against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Israel-c2925 for the 3rd place spot on the same date.
Tags: