Historic cricket win for Italy at T20 World Cup. India and Sri Lanka stay perfect

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MUMBAI, India (AP) — Italy earned a momentous maiden cricket win at the T20 World Cup when it stunned Nepal by 10 wickets on Thursday.

Brothers Anthony and Justin Mosca sealed the victory with an unbeaten stand for 124-0 after Nepal was bowled out for 123 at the iconic Wankhede Stadium.

Italy’s first win at a global cricket tournament came in its second outing, and the Azzurri joined the Netherlands as the only two non-British European teams to win a game in the T20 World Cup.

In the evening game, tournament co-host and defending champion India eased past Namibia by 93 runs in New Delhi. Hardik Pandya put in an all-round performance, hitting 52 off 28 balls and taking 2-21 in four overs.

Captain Dasun Shanaka broke his own record for the fastest Twenty20 half-century for Sri Lanka as it crushed Oman by 105 runs in Pallekele.

Italy gained associated member status in 1995 and played its first T20 international in 2019 against Germany.

The team is mainly comprised of immigrant cricketers: The Mosca and Manenti brothers are Australian-born; injured skipper Wayne Madsen was born in Durban and played international field hockey for South Africa; allrounder JJ Smuts played ODIs and T20s for South Africa until 2021. Allrounder Jaspreet Singh — born in Punjab — brings the Indian flavor and Crishan Kalugamage — the player of the match against Nepal — comes from Sri Lanka's spin heritage.

For all of them, this World Cup is about laying roots for the future.

Nepal, at its third T20 World Cup, was riding high after giving England a mighty scare at the same venue on Sunday.

But Kalugamage picked 3-18, including Nepal captain Rohit Paudel. Ben Manenti (2-9) dismissed Lokesh Bam — hero of the England game — for 3 and Nepal couldn't recover. The last seven wickets fell for 30 runs and Nepal was shot out with three balls to spare.

The Sydney-based Mosca brothers hit nine sixes and eight boundaries — Anthony was 62 not out off 32 balls and Justin 60 not out off 44 — to dismantle the Nepal attack in just 12.4 overs.

Their unbeaten 124 runs was the highest partnership between siblings in men's T20 World Cups, surpassing the 96 by Pakistan’s Kamran and Umar Akmal against Australia in 2014.

The first ever 10-wicket win for Italy was only the second ever by an associate nation in tournament history.

“It is pretty extraordinary,” stand-in Harry Manenti said. "It is something that a lot of people in Italy, and a lot of people in this team dreamt for a long time. When we qualified (for this World Cup) it was a special moment. But our goal was always to compete in this competition and compete at this level, and we showed that today.”

Shanaka’s 19-ball 50 after Kusal Mendis’ 61 and Pavan Rathnayake’s 60 against a weak bowling attack propelled Sri Lanka to a tournament-best 225-5.

Oman labored to 120-9 in reply, the wickets shared by five bowlers. Off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana led with 2-11 off four overs.

Sri Lanka has two wins from two games but was yet to meet Group B rivals Australia and Zimbabwe.

Oman’s 43-year-old Mohammad Nadeem became the oldest man to score a half-century in the history of the T20 World Cup with an unbeaten 53 from 56 balls. Nadeem was one of the only two Oman batters to reach double figures with Wasim Ali scoring 27.

Sri Lanka lost Pathum Nissanka and Kamil Mishra inside the power play but Rathnayake and Mendis featured in a brisk 94-run third-wicket stand off 52 balls.

Shanaka smacked five sixes to surpass his previous Sri Lanka record of a 20-ball half-century against India in 2023 before he holed out at long-off off the next ball.

Opener Ishan Kishan hit 61 runs off 24 deliveries and provided a brisk start for India. Sanju Samson scored 22 off eight balls.

India scored 86-1 in the power play – this tournament’s highest so far – to lay down the platform for a big score after Namibia opted to bowl first.

Spinner Gerhard Erasmus took a career-best 4-20 in four overs, pegging India back to 124-4 in 11.5 overs.

Pandya hit back with an 81-run partnership with Shivam Dube (23). Pandya hit four sixes and four fours, as India finished with 209-9.

Namibia started well – 67-1 after seven overs – but its innings fell apart against spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who took three wickets for seven runs in his two overs.

He bowled Namibia top-scorer Louren Steenkamp (29) in the eighth over, and Namibia collapsed to 116 all out from 86-2.

India sits atop Group A and next faces arch rival Pakistan on Sunday in the highest-profile match of the tournament. Pakistan had initially announced a boycott of the game in Colombo.

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