After recent victories over Hungary, Russia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, the Malta team started confidently against Luxembourg at Marsa but missed chances proved costly for them in all three matches in the series.
Proceedings began with Friday’s Twenty20 match.
After Luxembourg were sent in to bat, William Heath (67) and Tim Barker (31) laid the foundation for a decent score with a second-wicket partnership of 61 runs.
Vikram Vijh hit seven boundaries in his 48 runs from only 25 balls as his cameo catapulted the visitors from 65 in the first 10 overs to a total of 164 for three.
For Malta, Andrew Naudi and George Agius took a wicket each.
Malta’s reply lacked the required conviction. Captain Nowell Khosla (27) and Naudi (22) offered some resistance but it was to be a convincing victory for Luxembourg by 63 runs.
Luxembourg batted first in Saturday’s 20-overs international and posted an imposing score of 271 for 9, led by Barker (83 off 50) and Vijh (56 off 32).
For the home side, Niraj Khanna and Feroz Ahmed took two wickets apiece.
Malta’s riposte began poorly, with the early wicket of Sam Aquilina, but Khosla (31) and Naudi (15) saw the side recover to 52 for one, before both batsmen fell in quick succession.
Niraj Khanna scored his highest international score – 65 – during a 79-run partnership with Bikram Arora (15).
But Luxembourg’s comprehensive victory was complete as a flurry of wickets followed (six for only 15 runs). Paul Bradley and George Agius saw Malta to the close, as they reached a respectable score of 158.
On Sunday, Luxembourg won the toss and elected to bat in the all-important 45 overs match.
The hosts were looking for some consolation after two losses but Luxembourg’s batting did not disappoint.
Chris Fry (72) and William Cope (40) provided a solid base for some late hitting by Barker (34 off 18 balls). Spinners Naudi and Ronnie Sacco kept the Luxembourg batting line-up in check and Malta went in for lunch content with having restricted the visitors to 266 for 7.
After losing Aquilina with the score at 13, Khosla and Frank Spiteri set about consolidating the innings. The pair reached the first drinks break with Malta at 60 for 1 from 15 overs.
By the 30th over, they put on a further 100 but after a superb 144-run partnership, Khosla was finally caught in the deep for 70.
Khanna joined Spiteri and the pair put on another 32 in quick succession before the latter was adjudged LBW just five runs short of his century.
With 60 runs required off the final 10 overs, Malta were still well placed for victory. However, the dismissal of Khanna (25) and Naudi (23) saw the momentum shift again in Luxembourg’s favour.
The lower order failed to see the home side through, falling short of victory by just 18 runs.
The series saw Spiteri become the first Maltese batsman to pass 1,500 international runs while Naudi is now the country’s most capped cricketer with 55, overtaking Michael Caruana (53 caps).