Aussie push sends Italy into maiden World Cup

Manenti and Burns among the action as the Italians qualify for epic T20 event despite defeat to Netherlands

Italy has made history on the cricket field by qualifying for next year's ICC T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, despite suffering a nine-wicket defeat to the Netherlands at The Hague.

The Netherlands also qualified for the 20-team event after chasing down a target of 135 with 22 balls remaining, their top three of Michael Levitt (34), Max O'Dowd (47no) and captain Scott Edwards (37no) doing the business to outgun their European counterparts.

There was a distinctly Australian flavour to proceedings, with both skippers - Edwards and former Test batter Joe Burns - Australian citizens. South Australian Sheffield Shield champ, Ben Manenti, top scored for Italy with 30 from 27 balls from No.6 after they had slipped to 4-46.

For the Dutch, Kyle Klein (2-27) did early damage before player of the match Roelof van der Merwe (3-15) controlled the middle overs, with Italy only producing something approaching a competitive total after taking 33 from the final three overs.

Ultimately though their 7-134 was well under par, the Dutch bursting out of the blocks to be 0-66 after the Powerplay and leaving themselves well placed to finish the job, which they did in the 17th over.

Italy will mind little however, having qualified for their first-ever ICC World Cup narrowly ahead of Jersey thanks to a superior net run rate.

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