Germany are out in front at the World Cricket League Europe region Division One tournament after beating fellow unbeaten team Norway today in Rotterdam.

German captain Rishi Pillai won the toss and chose to bat first, though Germany promptly lost opener Daniel Weston for five early on in their innings. Mudassar Muhammad, fresh off the back of centuries in each of the first two games, was again in the runs, though this time he scored "only" 61 before he was the second man out, sharing in a 90 run stand with Amith Sarma.

Sarma ended up as the top scorer, reaching 82 and putting on 88 for the third wicket with his captain Pillai. Germany just fell short of batting out their overs, scoring 262 before Ahmed Wardak was run out on the penultimate delivery.

In reply, only Suhail Ifitkhar offered any resistance for the Norwegians, top scoring with 53 as they were bowled out for 149, losing by 113 runs. Sajid Liaqat was the pick of the German bowlers, taking 5-39.

The match of the day was at the VRA ground in Amstelveen, as Austria and Sweden played out a close finish. Austria batted first after Swedish captain Mitchell O'Connor put them into bat. Their innings was built around a fine century from Shadnan Khan, who scored 119. The next highest score was Armaan Randhawa's 36, and Austria scored 252 from their 50 overs.

Sweden lost their captain from the first ball of their reply, but fifties from Abhijit Venkatesh and Sabir Zahoor kept them in the game. They needed 34 from the last four overs, and scoring 11 from the 47th put them in the more promising position of needing 20 from three, though with only three wickets in hand it was still challenging.

The first ball of the 48th over saw Usman Arif get out lbw, and six more runs came from the rest of the over, leaving 14 to get from the last two overs. Asia Mahmood bowled well to go for just three from the penultimate over, leaving Sweden needing 11 from the last.

Centurion Shannon Khan bowled that last over, and had Rahel Khan caught from the first ball of it. He then followed that with a no-ball which Sweden scored a run from. They took two more from the free hit, but Khan hit back with a dot ball. Seven needed from three balls.

A single, then two, and Sweden needed a boundary from the final delivery. Nasir Iqbal could only manage a single though, and Sweden lost by two runs.

Over at Schiedam, Belgium batted first after winning the toss against France. They scored 225 in 49.4 overs, Faisal Khaliq top scoring with 72. The target was too much for the French, despite 73 from Usman Shahid, and they were bowled out for 175 to lose by 50 runs. Faisal Khaliq completed a fine all-round performance by taking 4-35.

The tournament continues tomorrow with Germany taking on Sweden knowing that a win is almost certain to secure them qualification to WCL Division 5. Norway will need to beat France to stay in the hunt, whilst Belgium take on Austria in the other match of the day.