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Dunabogdany won by 7 wickets

A Hungarian league record opening stand for Dunabogdany CC, hostile bowling, courageous cricket and an injury to the DCC wicketkeeper headline an eventful match between DCC and the all-Hungarian Danubian Kangaroos.

Breezy and mild conditions greeted the teams on Sunday August 24 as they met at Dunabogdany for their match.
Dunabogdany won the toss and elected to field. Given the conditions, DCC captain Yusaf Akbar elected to mix spin and seam in his opening bowling selections. In opening spells, Akbar and John Marshall restricted the Kangaroos to single figures and picked up one wicket. Aware of their shortage of recognized bowlers and the fact that the strength of the Kangaroos batting came later down in the order, DCC quickly bowled through 5 overs of their occasional bowlers before bringing in DCC star seamer Angus McLeod into the action at one end and off-break bowler Rob Smyth. McLeod quickly snatched two wickets as the Kangaroos struggled for runs early on.

The fall of wickets however brought pioneering Hungarian cricketer and Kangaroos skipper Gabor Török to join David Török at the wicket. Without doubt, DCC saw the removal of captain Török as crucial to their chances of restricting the Kangaroos. McLeod duly obliged, removing the Kangaroos skipper and talisman for a duck with a full length in-swinger that trapped him leg before wicket.

However, the Kangaroos launched a strong rearguard action with David Török (34 runs), Tamas Török (36 runs) and Viktor Agoston (26 runs) all providing runs through a mixture of lusty hitting and solid defence. By innings end, the Kangaroos had amassed 131-9.

Special mention goes to John Marshall who bowled aggressively and removed dangerman Tamas Török. Unfortunately, Marshall also contributed to a nasty injury to DCC wicket keeper Aneyas Moghe who suffered a large cut to his left eyebrow requiring emergency medical attention and 3 stitches.

Best of the DCC bowlers was McLeod who finished with 4-12 in his five overs.

When DCC openers Rob Smyth and Alexis Latham came to the wicket at the start of DCC’s innings, the consensus among the DCC players was that they had to see off the Török brothers’ early bowling spell and the remainder of the Kangaroos attack would be relatively plain sailing. This prediction largely came to fruition. While starting cautiously, Smyth and Latham began to steadily accelerate and by 15 overs had reached an unbroken stand of 92. It looked almost a certainty that they would reach a century partnership when the excellent Smyth (43 runs) inexplicably slogged out at Murlasits and was out plum leg before wicket with their partnership ending on 98 – an HCL record for an opening stand. Smyth’s erstwhile partner Latham soon followed caught and bowled by the redoubtable and accurate Gabor Török. At this stage, however, it was a case of too little too late for the Kangaroos attack and despite the loss of McLeod for 13, DCC ran out easy winners with Zador ending the game with a sublime on-drive for six. DCC reached their target with almost 3 overs to spare.

The pick of the Kangaroos bowlers was without doubt Gabor Török, who was desperately unlucky not to have captured more wickets with a series of unplayable leg cutters. Special mention must also go Viktor Agoston who bowled testing left arm seamers – especially in his second spell – drifting the ball dangerously across the right-handers in the DCC batting line up.

Despite defeat, the Kangaroos remain one of the gems of the Hungarian Cricket Association – a team of exclusively Hungarian players whose commitment, enthusiasm, skill and knowledge of the game is a model for the future development of the game in Hungary and other emerging cricketing nations.

Man of the Match: Rob Smyth for his match-winning innings.