Cricket: Isle of Man takes sixth place in ICC T20 qualifiers

Manx side beaten by ruthless Portugal in play-off contest

The Isle of Man men's cricket team have secured sixth place during this year's ICC T20 Sub Regional World Cup Qualifiers.

In their final match of the campaign at Roma Cricket Ground in Rome on Sunday (16 June) the Manx side suffered an 88-run defeat at the hands of Portugal in the Sub Regional Europe Qualifier A fifth-place play-off.

Having fielded first, the Isle of Man found themselves all-out for 86 after Portugal had set them an imperious target of 174 to try and overhaul.

Portugal were first into bat and the Isle of Man took an early wicket through an Ollie Webster catch before a 69-run Portugal partnership of Suman Ghimire and Jalpesh Vijay settled things down.

Despite both eventually being dismissed by the Isle of Man's Matt Ansell and a Chris Langford catch respectively, Portugal's Anthony Chambers stepped in with another 22 runs before being caught by Carl Hartmann.

In what would be the last Portugal duo to see out the 20 overs, Amir Zaib (45 not out) and Najam Shahzad (21 not out) set the Island squad a tough target of 174-4 to overcome.

A tough start into bat for the Isle of Man saw Webster claim 11 runs before being caught by Vijay - after this both Adam McAuley and Eddie Beard fell for ducks whilst George Burrows managed just two runs before being caught out.

Despite this challenging opening few overs, the Isle of Man then began to respond as Hartmann registered 20 runs during his stint whilst there were 14 runs apiece for Langford and Harry McAleer to add to the total during their respective spells.

With chances of a late comeback fading, the trio of Ansell, Joe Burrows and and Luke Ward put in a spirited effort with a combined 21 runs which proved to be too little as Portugal closed out the contest in just under 14 overs.