Captain's injury agony mars 'emotional' Italy debut at T20 World Cup / Photo: Dibyangshu SARKAR - AFP
Captain's injury agony mars 'emotional' Italy debut at T20 World Cup
Italy captain Wayne Madsen suffered a dislocated shoulder on Monday to cast a cloud over their "emotional" T20 World Cup debut which ended in a heavy defeat to Scotland.
The Italians walked out at Kolkata's Eden Gardens to make cricket history for a nation that has won four football World Cups but never before graced cricket's equivalent.
After opting to field after winning the toss, Madsen's tournament all but ended in the fourth over after an awkward fall while fielding and he returned to the pavilion in obvious pain.
Madsen could not bat and watched his team lose by 73 runs as they were bundled out for 134 chasing 208.
"I'm not going to say he's out, but I think it'd be doubtful if you dislocate your shoulder," Italy coach John Davison told reporters.
"Yeah in cricket it's going to be pretty tough to come back from, but we'll see what the scans say."
Batsman Ben Manenti, who top-scored for Italy with his valiant 52, said: "We've been preparing for this for six, eight months and trying to get in here for longer.
"It was obviously emotional, exciting, not always ideal when your captain dislocates his shoulder in the first few overs of the game," he told reporters.
"That throws a spanner in the works and obviously we were one batter less in that chase as well and a high-quality batter in that."
Italy bowlers faced the heat in the day game as opener George Munsey led Scotland's batting charge with his 54-ball 84.
Italian brothers Harry Manenti, who made 37, and Ben attempted to put up a fight but after their departure the batting fell apart in 16.4 overs.
"I think our biggest challenge was always going to be to bring our best game to the occasion," said Davison.
"And I think that the occasion may have got a little bit big on us.
"But having said that, it was our first game in the tournament, a few guys in that team haven't played in front of over 100 people before in a stadium. So it's a great experience."
The 66,000-capacity ground had only a few hundred spectators but a smattering of Italian fans turned up to cheer on their team's debut.
Davison said the players will learn and move forward when they next play Nepal in Mumbai on Thursday.
"I suppose there's different lessons there for different individuals," said Davison.
"There's some guys there who gave the game a good shake and performed pretty well.
"And then some other guys who probably need to work on the mental side of the game to enable their skill side to show."
(R.Williams--TPT)
