Falling isle of manfully short

Britain, a country, has a nifty trick it plays in many international sporting tournaments. It suddenly splits into smaller countries like England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to maximise its participation in these tourneys. But, sometimes, this strategy backfires. Like it did on Sunday when the ‘self-governing crown dependency’ of the Isle of Man – another island lying between the British island and the Irish one – played their sixth T20 match in a series tour against Spain in Cartagena.

And, yes, Spain – technically, the Association Cricket Espanola (ACE) – has been an International Cricket Council (ICC) affiliate member since 1992. The Isle of 11-Man squad was bundled out for 10 runs, beating the previous lowest of 15 chalked up by the Sydney Thunder against Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League in December 2022, and the same score by Turkiye against the Czech Republic in 2019.

Going by the scorecard, it would seem the Spanish side was better endowed with ‘subcontinental’ heft, their top wicket- takers being Mohammad Kamran and Atif Mehmood, with Awais Ahmed their only scoring player. With 11 runs to win, the first Isle of Man delivery bowled by Joseph Burrows was a no-ball. The next two were thwacked for a six apiece by Ahmed. In short, in a short game of the shortest format of cricket, the tourists fell Isle of Manfully short.