ISLE of Man made it two wins out of two in the European Third Division with an easy seven wickets win over Belgium at Sporting Alfas.

The game was marred from early on by an injury to Shahid Muhammad who was hit on the head, not wearing a helmet. He was able to walk off the field but was taken to hospital as a precaution. The opening batsman was released and accompanied the team on the bus back to the team hotel but will miss today’s game against Spain.

The next few Belgian batsmen were obviously affected by what they saw and Max Stokoe took the first four wickets for the addition of just 21 runs. Stokoe had figures of four for 20 in his seven overs and although Nadeem Khan and Shar Khan added 38 for the fifth wicket, the remaining five wickets fell for 25 runs. Nicholas Hawke took the last three wickets to finish with three for 12 and that included three of the 28 wides bowled in the innings. Indeed, wides were comfortably the top contributor to the Belgium total which had 31 extras.

Shar Khan made two early breakthroughs when the Isle of Man batted but Christopher Hawke batted through the reply, finishing 57 not out, from 99 balls, with six fours and three sixes, as his side reached their target for the loss of just one more wicket in the 34th over.

Next up for the Islanders is the game against the other team with a 100% record after two games, Israel, back at La Manga on Wednesday.