The first European 50 over tournament since 2010 started today in the Netherlands with wins for Germany, Norway and Sweden against France, Austria and Belgium respectively.

At Voorburg, the match between France and Germany was highlighted by a fantastic century from German opener Mudassar Muhammed, who clubbed an unbeaten 102 from just 62 balls. He brought up his century from 59 balls with a six straight over the bowler’s head. Germany completed a ten wicket win in the next over.

Earlier Muhammed showed that he can also do the business with the ball by taking 3-22 from his ten overs. Shahi Momin and Ehsan Latif also took three wickets each as France were bowled out for 143, failing to bat out their rain reduced 49 over innings. Usman Shahid was the only bright spot in the French batting line-up, scoring 43.

At VOC in Rotterdam, Norway batted first against Austria after captain Raza Iqbal won the toss. Iqbal and Ehtsham Ul Haq then got the Norwegian innings off to a good start with an 86 run opening partnership which ended when Ul Haq was caught behind for 40.

Raza Iqbal went on to score 51 before he was out, whilst Ansar Iqbal also batted well, scoring 42 from 38 balls and sharing in a 61 run partnership for the fourth wicket with Rahul Shinde. The final total for Norway was 210 from their rain reduced 43 overs.

Kasthuri Arachchige top scored in the Austrian reply with 75, but other than a knock of 34 from captain Amar Naeem there wasn’t much to write home about in their batting line-up. They lost their last six wickets for just 13 runs to be bowled out for 160 and lose by 50 runs.

Over in Utrecht in a match reduced to 30 overs, Sweden put Belgium in to bat after winning the toss. They bowled Belgium out for 132, a target they were able to successfully chase down to win by four wickets with just two balls to spare.