Europe must leave T10 final to British and Irish
Published at 24 February, 2025The Weston Shield 2025 is for the British & Irish XI. At the Spanish Cartama Oval, the British/Irish team peaked at the right time in the final against Europe: 197 – 152.
The British/ Irish combination chose to bat. That started pretty well with a first over with 33 runs. Keeper/ batter Smale (89 off 27, 11x6) reached his 50 in nine (!) balls. Sikander Zulfiqar (3-45) brought Europe back into the game; However, 125/2/6 was not the score that Europe would have hoped for. Priestley (85 off 25) also contributed nicely. Europe only just managed to keep the British and Irish under 200: 197/4.
Max O'Dowd (30 off eleven balls) showed another glimpse of his class, but his teammates failed; 42/5 after three overs was the disastrous result. Left arm spinner Davidson (1-23) kept the scoring rate low with a barrage of yorkers. 75 runs off twelve balls were required, so anyone with a calculator already knew what the result would be. Sikander made an excellent 57* off 22 balls but 152/8 was all the Europeans could manage. With that, the British/ Irish combination peaked at the right time.
Asia has no chance against Europe
Earlier in the day, Europe had made short work of the Asian team. Sajid Afridi was unplayable with 4-9, but Sikander Zulfiqar also had good figures with 3-32. Again there were catches from Croes, Shariz and Zulfiqar as Asia finished on 135/9. With 53* of 18 balls, Afridi then delivered an impressive all-round performance.
Photo credit ECN Diana Oros
