National team relegated after poor show in La Manga

The Malta national team will be playing in Division Four in the 2011 European Championship after finishing bottom of Division Three in a tournament that was played recently in La Manga with the participation of Spain, Israel, Portugal, Isle of Man and Belgium.

Malta fielded first in the opening match against Spain but the hosts were on fire and scored a healthy 294 runs from the 50 overs allocated.

John Callus was the main wicket-taker with three for Malta while Andy Naudi and Angelo Spiteri took two each.

The team basically needed a-run-a-ball rate to win this game.

However, the batsmen fell apart trying to keep up with the run rate and were bowled out for 91 runs.

Against Israel, the team relegated from Division Two, the Maltese produced a slightly better bowling effort as the opponents totalled 263.

But, the Maltese failed to get going in the run chase and were bowled out for 90 runs. This was the national team's worst start to any tournament in over a decade.

Portugal were up next. They were on a high after beating Spain the day before. Malta again fielded first and managed a tally of 187 runs.

This time, Spiteri led the bowling figures with four wickets.

Callus played his best innings of the tournament and made 64 runs (not out) for Malta to chalk up their only win of the tournament. Frank Spiteri scored 20 runs, Andy Naudi 22, Javed Shah 38 and Mike Caruana chipped in with five not out.

The fourth game, against Isle of Man, Malta finally batted first.

Frank Spiteri hit a high score of 65 making him the first batsman to reach 1,000 runs for the team on the international scene.

Malta totalled 188 runs but Isle of Man hit back strongly to make the runs required within the 44th over. Here, the Malta team were left to rue what might have happened had they taken two key catches that eventually took the game away from them.

In the last match against Belgium, Malta batted first and only managed a mere 178 runs. Belgium made the runs in the 39th over.

Cyprus will be replacing Malta in Division Three in 2011. The other teams in Division Four are Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland and Greece.

The Malta Cricket Association was assisted by the Kunsill Malti għall-iSport, Maltese Olympic Committee and Cortis Group of Companies.

Final standings: 1. Israel; 2. Isle of Man; 3. Spain; 4. Belgium; 5. Portugal; 6. Malta.

Highlights

• Frank Spiteri was the ninth highest individual scorer in the tournament with 65 runs.

• Andy Naudi had the third highest run aggregate with 137 runs.

• Angelo Spiteri was 11th top wicket-taker with eight wickets.

• Andy Naudi and Frank Spiteri had the eighth highest partnership with 74 runs.