Ireland take honours despite losing
Ireland took the honours in this year's ECC Under 13 Championships despite losing their final match against Scotland in a tight finish. Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands all finished with two victories but Ireland had the better run rate with Scotland second and the Netherlands third. Tournament Director Bjarne K Jensen said at the presentation ceremony "We have had three glorious days of cricket in hot sunshine. We have seen some good cricket all round and all the boys have given all they have got in the hot weather."
ICC European Development Officer Philip Hudson presented the Irish captain Hugh MacDonnell with the winners plaque and medals to all the team. Player of the tournement was decided on ppoints given by all the managers after each match and the choice fell on Netherlands player Paul van Meekeren who took nine wickets in three matches as a well composed fast bowler. Phillip Hudson also presented the "Spirit of Cricket" award to Holland.
What people beforehand thought was the final Ireland-Scotland turned out to be one of two finals and that was because the Netherlands had on Wednesday beaten the Scots. So there was plenty of excitement as to how the final table would end but Ireland were the favorites because of their better run rate. Ireland got off to a shocking start against Scotland losing their first wicket caught in the slips in the second over. Three more wickets quickly fell and Ireland was struggling at 26 for four. When hard hitter Dhruv Kappor was out for 15 with the score on 48 thins did look bleak for the Irish. But Tomás Murphy and Hugo Mays put on 61 for the sixth wicket and all the Irish tail contributed to pull the final score to 169 for 9 in the allotted 40 overs.
Scotland's reply was not that much better as Baker and Mathew Cross were both out with only 9 on the board. Andrew Lewis (27) and Frederick Cox (35) came to the rescue and added 45 for the third wicket before Lewis was caught and bowled by Andrews. Umeed was quickly out and was followed soon after by Cox. The score was 81 for 5 and it got worse with Page and Gillies soon out. Scottish captain Peter Ross stood at the one end and finally found a partner in Alexander Scott-Gray. They came together when the eight wicket fell at 114 and every one though all was lost but they did not give up. Overs were running out but Peter Ross took the matter to the sword helped by some inept Irish fielding dropping catches and missing a run out opportunity. Needing 23 off the final three overs the Scotts only needed the two to win the match as the winning run came off a wide.
On the other pitch Denmark faced Holland who had the chance of getting second place if Ireland won by beating the Danes. Denmark decided to bat first and their final total of 159 all out was due to Rohit Kumar (35) and Shear Mondozay (34). Siddeque Raja (21) chipped in at the end with some hard hitting while Paul van Meekeren took three more wickets.
The Danes however do not posses a bowler who is dangerous or that poses a threat. Captain Basit Raja does bowls some good deliveries but also bowls a lot of wides. So the Dutch batsmen lead by Marten Prenen (44) and Jaap Dickmann (36) had no real trouble is passing the Danish score of 159.