SPAIN OUTGUN GIBRALTAR TO FINISH SECOND IN THEIR GROUP

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SPAIN 171 FOR 5 BEAT GIBRALTAR 102 ALL OUT BY 69 RUNS.

Spain were celebrating today after beating their arch rivals Gibraltar for the third time in as many months. The Under 17 Spanish team played their best cricket of the tournament so far in securing this victory and everyone in the team played to their full potential. The fielding was outstanding and the bowling aggressive.

Gibraltar won the toss and invited Spain to bat. Spain had a new look opening partnership due to the injury to Brook and so Malaga based Tom Foster was given the responsibility of opening with Ben Taylor.

Both openers made a steady start and had reached 26 without loss by the 9th over. The third ball of Sadhwani’s fourth over Taylor was adjudged lbw by the Maltese umpire and Spain had lost their first wicket. Foster was the next to go when bowled by Pizarro for 16 and when the same bowler also bowled Sivier for 6 with the score on 62 the Spanish supporters began to get a little edgy. This was exagerated when Garside got out to a silly run out after a misunderstanding with captain Munoz that left the Spaniards at 90 for 4 in the 25th over. 

From ball one Winter looked composed and focused on giving Spain an healthy total and so it prooved as he struck 57 not out in an innings that lasted 84 minutes and 64 balls. He was ably supported by Munoz (12) and especially Seekings who occupied the crease for 40 minutes and added 12 individual runs to the score. In practice that was much more as the wicket keeper batsman had lots of wides bowled to him and with each wide worth 2 runs the partnership between both batsmen was worth 79 to the Spanish cause.

Seekings finally fell to the penultimate ball of the innings and the final total was a very competitive 171 for 5. With a slow and wet outfield stopping potential fours it was never going to be an easy task.

The Gibraltarians started brightly and the openers Dashwani and Chipolina both looked in good form. A brilliant piece of fielding led to the downfall of the dangerous Chipolina when Sunderland jumped high in to the air to take a brilliant one handed catch off the bowling of Garside for 6 with the score on 30.

This signalled a real purple patch for Spain and soon a bemused Gibraltar side found themselves going from 30 for 0 in the 12th over to 30 for 4 in the 16th. The fiesty Sivier took two wickets in his third over, including that of key batsman Hatcher for 0, and then followed up a double wicket maiden with another wicket in the next over.

Not to be outdone and seeing his possible man of the match status threatened Winter came on and got the wicket of P Dumas for 7 courtesy of a fine catch by Girling and then Munoz came on to wrap things up and had an amazing spell of bowling that included a wicket first ball. That brought a Fernando Torres style celebration from the Spanish captain and then the wicket of Pizarro in his second over gave him figures of 3-10, despite none of the runs coming from the bat.

It was left to keeper Seekings to stump Hunter off Taylor to gave Spain the much sought after victory and set them up for a 3rd/4th match with Israel at the Bonn International School tommorrow afternoon.

SPAIN BEAT GIBRALTAR BY 69 RUNS

GIBRALTAR WON THE TOSS AND ELECTED TO FIELD

SPAIN

B TAYLOR LBW BOWLED SADHAWNI 4

T FOSTER BOWLED PIZARRO 16

A SIVIER BOWLED PIZARRO 6

M GARSIDE RUN OUT 8

C MUNOZ CAUGHT G DUMAS BOWLED FAYTONE 12

M WINTER NOT OUT 57

B SEEKINGS CAUGHT HATCHER BOWLED SADHAWNI 12

M SMITH NOT OUT 0

J COBB DNB

J SUNDERLAND DNB

B GIRLING DNB

SUB TOTAL 115

EXTRAS 56

TOTAL 171 FOR 5 OFF 40 OVERS

FOW 1-26, 2-62 3-64, 4-90, 5-169

BOWLING

J HATCHER 8-0-25-0

KSADWHANI 8-0-31-2

C PIZARRO 8-0-44-2

S CHIPOLINA 8-2-31-0

J FREYONE 6-0-22-1

P DUMAS 1-0-6-0

M HUNTER 1-0-6-0

GIBRALTAR

R DASWANI CAUGHT FOSTER BOWLED SIVIER 13

S CHIPOLINA CAUGHT SUNDERLAND BOWLED GARSIDE 6

K SADWHANI CAUGHT SUNDERLAND BOWLED MUNOZ 17

J HATCHER BOWLED SIVIER 0

J FREYONE CAUGHT MUNOZ BOWLED SIVIER 0

P DUMAS CAUGHT GIRLING BOWLED WINTER 7

K STAGNO BOWLED MUNOZ 20

G DUMAS CAUGHT MUNOZ BOWLED TAYLOR 0

M HUNTER STUMPED SEEKINGS BOWLED TAYLOR 2

C PIZARRO BOWLED MUNOZ 1

L COLLADO NOT OUT 0

SUB TOTAL 66

EXTRAS 36

TOTAL 102 ALL OUT IN 30.3 OVERS

BOWLING

B GIRLING 5-1-14-1

J SUNDERLAND 5-0-9-0

A SIVIER 6-2-12-3

M GARSIDE 5-2-13-1

M WINTER 3-0-23-1

B TAYLOR 4.3-0-18-2

C MUNOZ 2-0-10-3

SPAIN WON BY 69 RUNS

MAN OF THE MATCH NOMINATED BY

INDEPENDENT UMPIRES MATT WINTER