Italy have qualified for the T20 World Cup for the first time, despite falling to a nine wicket defeat in their final match of the European Qualifier against Netherlands.
Next year's men's T20 World Cup will have a new competitor, with Italy securing the second qualification spot from the European Qualifier to seal their maiden berth at the competition. Having beaten Scotland earlier in the week, Italy had to ensure their NRR didn't fall below Jersey's in their final match against Netherlands (in the case that they didn't win).
Match 10, Netherlands vs Italy
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- Ball by ball Over
After only being able to post a total of 134, the Netherlands put their hopes of staying in the qualification positions under threat early, when they raced to 70-0 off the first seven overs. Nevertheless, Crishan Kalugamage's wicket of Michael Levitt pegged the tournament hosts back, and their run rate fell from 10 to 8.31 in the next six overs. Max O'Dowd (47*) and Scott Edwards (37*) saw Netherlands over the line comfortably with 22 balls to spare, but also not so comfortably as to damage Italy's NRR enough to put them behind Jersey.
Italy and Jersey finished the tournament with two wins and five points each, but with Italy's NRR on +0.612 and Jersey's on +0.306.
Italy to play in T20 World Cup for the first time
The lineup for next year's tournament, which will be held in India and Sri Lanka, is now taking a fuller shape. While Netherlands and Italy will join England and Ireland as the European contingent, Scotland will not feature. They lost to Italy earlier in the week and lost a thriller to Jersey today (July 11), to finish the European Qualifier outside of the qualification positions. Canada won the Americas Qualifier, and will join USA and West Indies as the North American teams. The Africa and Asia-Pacific Qualifiers are still to be played, with five places up for grabs.
In 2023, it was reported that Italy would look to recruit professional cricketers around the world with Italian heritage, in order to make a competitive bid for qualification for the 2024 men's T20 World Cup. Among the players they recruited were Derbyshire's Wayne Madsen and former Australia Test opener Joe Burns. Their bid for 2024 qualification fell agonizingly short, with an abandoned game against Austria and losses to Scotland and Ireland in the Europe Qualifier Finals leaving them one place outside of the qualification spots.
In their successful bid this time around, Durham batter Emilio Gay shone for the side in their win over Scotland, scoring a half-century in the decisive result.
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