Cricket: Isle of Man crowned group winners at European Cricket Championships

Island side get revenge over Estonia to progress to play-offs

The Isle of Man has been crowned Group One winners in the Challenger Division of this year’s European Cricket Championships in Spain.

The Manx side took top spot after claiming victory over Estonia by four wickets in the Group One Final at Cartama Oval last night (26 September) with a score of 132-5.

Both nations will now progress to the play-offs phase of the tournament which is due to start next week.

For the Island squad it was also revenge for a last-ball defeat against their opposition earlier in the day on Thursday.

Having gone down to that late first qualifier defeat to Estonia during the afternoon, the Isle of Man earned the chance to face them again as they bounced back with a red-hot batting display against Bulgaria in the second qualifier.

There a century for Ollie Webster (103 total) and an imperious 96 runs from Eddie Beard saw them score a thumping 217 runs on their way to a 59-run victory to progress.

Into yesterday evening’s showdown after that and whilst there were no big batting outputs from the Isle of Man both Akki Van den Berg and Chris Langford put in a combined 58 runs not-out in a steady push to the team’s overall tally.

When it came to Estonia’s turn to chase down that 132-run benchmark, up stepped Steffan Gooch – who’d scored a brilliant century against the Isle of Man in their previous encounter – who managed 26 runs before being on the end of a sensational bowl and catch from Van den Berg.

Whilst the Isle of Man kept on disrupting their opponents, Estonia’s Stuart Hook did manage a steady 46 runs before being caught by the Isle of Man’s JJ Griffin.

Heading into the final over Estonia required 17 runs to snatch the win, however bowler Corbin Lieberberg kept his cool for the Isle of Man to only concede four runs in the final six balls to see the Island outfit to victory.