CRICKET: Successful weekend for IOM Men's team against Austria 

Report by IOM Cricket

Game one of the Isle of Man versus Austria bilateral series at King William’s College. Austria won the toss and chose to bat.

Austria 149-5

Mark Simpson Parker 49 was the mainstay of the Austria innings. An excellent display in the field with four catches and disciplined bowling restricted Austria to 149. The wicket takers were JJ Griffin 2-31 on debut and Chris Langford, Fraser Clarke and Joe Burrows the other wicket takers.

Isle of Man 150-4

An outstanding 53 from 28 balls by Nathan Knights and 50 from 51 balls by Adam McAuley got the IOM in an excellent position for Carl Hartmann 11, George Burrows 18 not out and Eddie Beard 7 not out to see them win with 4 balls to spare.

In game two of the bilateral series between the Isle of Man and Austria, Austria won the toss and chose to bat.

Austria 137 all out

A well made 57 from Razmal Shigiwal had Austria well placed at 80 for 3 wickets. However, the loss of 6 wickets for 13 runs saw Austria collapse to 137 all out. The IOM fielding was again excellent with two fantastic catches by Christian Webster and George Burrows. All the bowlers contributed with Matt Ansell 3-22, Chris Langford 2-19, JJ Griffin 2-31, Joe Burrows 2-36 and Fraser Clarke 1-26.

Isle of Man 140-5

Nathan Knights again started the innings positively with 17 from 12 balls. There was a small collapse at 26-3 but a fantastic partnership of 70 between Carl Hartmann 39 and Christian Webster and then a match winning partnership of 33 between Joe Burrows 11 not out and Christian. Christian finishing 59 not out, a very mature innings running hard and accelerating superbly in the latter overs.

Player of the Match (game one) - Nathan Knights

Player of the Match (game two) - Christian Webster

Game three of the Isle of Man versus Austria bilateral series at King William's College. Austria won the toss and chose to bowl.

Isle of Man 71-5 from 11 overs

George Burrows was 26 not out and Amit Nathwani and Shahil Momin both picked up two wickets. However, the weather unfortunately won and the game had to be abandoned.

Well done the Isle of Man National Team for winning the series 2-0.

A huge thank you to Austria for being the first international team to travel to the Isle of Man. We hope everyone gets home safely and on time. Good luck in the Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifiers in Scotland in a couple of weeks time.

Thank you to our scorers - Janelle and Kathryn, umpires Mick, Malc and David and photographer Caleb. Thanks also to Alan Steele from La Creperie and King William's College for hosting Austria and for use of their facilities.

A huge amount of work went into the first T20 internationals on the IOM  before during and after the series. A massive thank you to everyone who made it happen (there are too many people to mention) but it is greatly appreciated.

Sunday in particular was very well attended and hopefully the first of many T20 internationals on the Isle of Man.

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