Israel remain without a win after defeat to France

The Israel national teams run of disappointing results at the European T20 Championships in Jersey continued this afternoon, with a 32-run defeat to France. Fielding first for the first time in the tournament, Israel put in a much improved bowling and fielding performance on their poor showing in the morning defeat to Germany to dimiss the French for just 112, but that was followed by a below par batting display which saw Israel crash to 80 all out.

'A day of two halves' was how team manager Steve Leigh summed up the day. 'We batted well in the morning and bowled and fielded poorly, and then in the afternoon were excellent in the field but the batting collapsed'. 'Hopefully one day this week we can get everything right in the same game', he added, trying to remain upbeat.

Veteran David Massil (three for 11) and Eliezer Samson (three for 17) led the bowling attack, both finishing with outstanding figures, and with Yaniv Razpurker and Herschel Gutman both chipping in with two wickets, Israel would have been very satisfied in restricting France to 112. Unfortnuately the batsmen could not rise to the challenge. After five overs the score was 12 for two, and as the required run rate climbed, so the wickets tumbled.