The Israel U13 team concluded their history-breaking tour of Italy, where they participated in the European U13 'B' Championships, with a comprehensive victory by 89-runs over France yesterday. Israel secured the trophy on Wednesday when they beat Gibraltar, and will return home this afternoon from Rome with their gold medals.

Israel were in control of the match from the moment Reuven Bergman won his 5th straight toss. As he has done in all 4 previous games, he decided to bat, despite the overcast conditions. Raz Ben-Zaken and Alex Ozer got Israel off to an excellent start, with 60 runs on the board without loss after just 10 overs. The departure of Ben-Zaken hardly halted the scoring momentum, as Bar Ilya, who scored 39 against Gibraltar, was quickly playing with the confidence of a youngster on top of his game. Ozer, who has improved with each innings, was out for 31, and Bergman didn't last long, but Shai Divekar and Ilya took Israel to 144/3 at the completion of their 20 overs, with Ilya not out on 30. He can be extremely proud of his efforts, scoring a total of 107 runs at an average of 34 in the tournament.

France had yet to win a game, and they were not about to change that record against the disciplined Israeli bowling and tight fielding that has characterized each of their performances. Off spinner Ben-Zaken opened the bowling as Israel looked to rush through the first 10 overs before any rain fell, and he took 2 wickets in his 4 overs. Gabi Shachat, given a bowl for the first time in the week, grabbed his chance and took 2 for 8 in 4 overs, as France were reduced to 12 for 4 inside 6 overs. Israel decided to give each player a chance to bowl instead of trying to bowl their opponents out for as little as possible, and the bowling, although tight, lacked the penetration of previous games. France were content on mere survival, and crawled to 55/4 at the end of 20 overs.

"Today was a great way to end whats been a brilliant week for us. Each player was given a chance to contribute, and they can all go home very satisfied with their efforts", said coach Herschel Gutman after the game. "Tonight we are going to enjoy the awards ceremony, and then we are all looking forward to arriving home and celebrating our achievements in Israel tomorrow".

Belgium finished runners-up to Israel, beating Gibraltar by 63 runs yesterday, and there was somewhat of a surprise in a game played in the morning, as Italy (123) defeated Germany (115) by 8-runs to clinch third place.

© Israel Cricket Association