With Italy's surprising fifth place at Scotland's Euro 2000 and a less convincing tour of England by the Under 19s now history (two draws and three defeats), September 3rd saw the start of the second phase of the Italian season which will terminate on November 5th at Capannelle with the game between the under 19s and the ICC delegates present in Rome in coincidence with the development forum.

A twist of fate saw the best of three semifinals of the EIS Cup pair the same teams as on the opening day of the tournament. Then, on May 7th, eventual winners of the preliminary phase Pianoro cruised at Trentino, who clinced 4th place, by 7 wickets whilst 2nd place Capannelle convincingly won at Bologna, 3rd in the end, by 98 runs.

The Roman team confirmned its dominance over Bologna albeit needing to go to the decisive rubber game. In all three games Bologna, who like to set targets, batted first and Capannelle, who prefer chasing, batted second. 170, 150 and 145 never looked imposing scores yet Capannelle managed to fail in game 2 when at 91/4 they looked poised for a clean sweep. In game 1 Kiwi Michael Deane (94) made sure there was no trouble in reaching the target whilst in game 3 his countryman former Wellington batsman Philip Chandler (76 not out) saw the team from the hippodrome home with 5 wickets and 15 balls to spare.

The other semi saw the end of an era with Trentino deposing Pianoro, winner of the last 4 pennants, in the most emphatic manner with an 80 run win away followed by an even more convincing 137 run drubbing on home teritory, If in game 2 one can easily point out to the return of the ice cream man Aamir Shah (88 runs off 54 balls) as the decisive factor, it must be said that Trentino's first game win without their Italo-Pakistani star speaks for itself and leaves little doubts on the fact that the team from the Dolomites fully deserves to play its first national final.

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