Austria have parlayed their surprise win over Guernsey in the round robin stage by going all the way and beating Norway in the sub-regional B final in Finland to qualify for next year’s men’s regional qualifying final.

Norway won the toss and chose to bat first. They folded for just 76 with Amit Nathwani and Sahel Zadran both taking three wickets for the Austrians. Iqbal Hossain then scored 66 of the 77 runs required from 36 balls as Austria won by nine wickets, chasing their target in only 8.1 overs.

Austria will play the European final at a date and venue to be confirmed next year where they will come up against Denmark, Germany, Italy, Jersey and any European teams that fail to finish in the top eight of this year’s T20 World Cup and are ranked outside the top 12 in the T20I rankings.

In the third place play-off, Guernsey beat France by 56 runs. Luxembourg beat Switzerland by 7 runs to secure fifth place and the Czech Republic beat Bulgaria by four wickets to secure seventh place.

The next qualifying competition on the schedule - assuming it’s not been changed without telling anyone - is East Asia Pacific sub-regional A, set to be hosted by Vanuatu in September and also featuring Cook Islands, Fiji and Samoa.