National Counties XI Top Group at European Championship

National Counties XI finished top of the group in Champions Week of the Dream 11 European T10 Championship in Malaga. 

A six wickets defeat by Ireland XI in their final group match left National Counties level on eight points with Netherlands – the defending champions – and hosts Spain but they finished top by virtue of their superior net run-rate over six group matches. 

By finishing top National Counties, who are representing England in the 31-nation competition, will now face Netherlands in a qualifying match – effectively a semi-final - on Finals Day at the Cartama Oval on Friday (1pm) with the winners progressing to the final at (7.30pm). 

The losers will have another opportunity to progress to the final in a second qualifying match against either Spain or Ireland at 4pm. 

 Spain and Ireland will meet in an eliminator at the start of Finals Day at 10.30am with the losers exiting the competition. 

Ireland secured their place at Finals Day by beating National Counties then trouncing Italy by nine wickets by reaching a target of 115 in just 26 balls. 

Spain secured third place in the group by beating Germany by seven wickets in a straight shoot-out in the first rain of the tournament, which swept in on Storm Aline and meant the Duckworth Lewis Stern calculations had to be applied. 

Italy, Jersey and Germany missed out on Finals Day having finished in the bottom three places in the qualifying group.