The Isle of Man men’s national cricket team finished fifth in last week’s ICC Europe T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Qualifiers in Finland.

The Manx side qualified for the play-offs after finishing third in their group.

The squad opened their campaign with an impressive eight-wicket win over Luxembourg before losing to Spain the next day.

The islanders bounced back to winning ways with another big victory, this time over Bulgaria.

That left them a final group game against the hosts to decide which one of them would play in the third/fourth place play-off or the fifth/sixth place play-off.

Unfortunately the game was called off because of the weather. This left both teams on two wins, one loss, with the Finns ultimately finishing higher owning to be a better run rate.

This teed up Friday’s play-off with Israel.

The Isle of Man won the toss and elected to field and immediately put their opponents under pressure with Matt Ansell claiming a second-ball wicket to dismiss opener Yogev Nagavkar.

The rest of the island squad’s bowling unit soon followed his lead, and three wickets from Man of the Match George Newton and Crosby club-mate Joe Burrows saw Israel dismissed for 88 with 10 balls of their 20 overs left.

Island openers Carl Hartmann and Adam McAuley made short work of the reply, Hartmann knocking 34 from 18 balls, while McAuley finished on 38 not out.

Skipper Dollin Jansen brought the Manx home with an unbeaten 14.

Reflecting on the tournament, an Isle of Man Cricket spokesperson said: ‘There were some great individual performances which were underpinned by excellent team performances from a young group of players.

‘Our final position could easily have been higher in different circumstances. Well done to the whole squad who were fantastic on and off the pitch.’

Winners Portugal, who beat Spain in the final, advance through to next year’s regional final where they will be joined by Scotland, Jersey and Denmark.