Double Defeat For National Counties XI In European Championship 2022

National Counties XI made a disappointing start to their defence of the Dream 11 European T10 Championship as they were beaten by hosts Spain and Scotland at the Cartama Oval in Malaga.

Having won the competition 12 months ago National Counties, again representing England at the multi-nation competition, were given a bye to the final week of the tournament.

But they looked a little ring-rusty as Spain eased to a nine wickets win in their opening match and then went down by 32 runs to Scotland later in the day.

Against Spain, National Counties started brightly but lost three wickets in as many balls as they slipped from 42 for one to 42 for four.

Harrison Ward (Oxfordshire and Sussex) was caught off the final ball of the fourth over, bowled by Atif Mohammad, with Tom Bevan (Wales NC) and Ben Claydon (Suffolk) falling to the first two balls of Lorne Burns’ next over.

Berkshire all-rounder Andy Rishton repaired some of the damage with 32 from 11 balls, including four sixes, and with Wales NC’s Sam Pearce chipping in with 17, National Counties got to 104 for nine in their ten overs.

But that total was soon made to look inadequate as Daniel Doyle-Calle and Yasir Ali shared an opening stand of 83 in six overs.

Ali fell to Pearce but that was the only wicket to fall as Doyle-Calle finished unbeaten on 57 from 27 balls and Spain got home with 13 balls to spare.

National Counties then faced a familiar figure in the second match of the day as Dorset left-arm seamer Brad Currie, who was signed by Sussex last season, lined up for Scotland.

Scotland made 118 for six which was built around a 31-ball 71 from opener Oli Hairs and a quickfire 28 from Taimoor Ahmad.

Currie then bowled Ward, his Sussex team-mate, with the first ball of National Counties’ reply before captain Dan Lincoln of Berkshire countered with a punchy 23 but only 32 runs in came in the first five overs.

The loss of Lincoln and Eliot Callis (Buckinghamshire) in quick succession led to a loss of momentum with Jack Jarvis taking three for nine in his two overs.

Currie returned to claim the wicket of Berkshire’s Jafer Chohan and he finished with two for 13 to help restrict National Counties to 86 for seven.

National Counties play Italy and Netherlands in their next two matches of the tournament on Tuesday.

Spain, who also beat Italy on Monday, and Netherlands, who beat Scotland and Italy, won both of their matches on Monday.