Baggy Blues 4 6 Andrew Leckonby * run out 3 0 0 Mike Glover + c Kennedy b Salman 35 6 0 Dominic Ward b Nazar 1 0 0 Hiran de Silva c Kennedy b Haroon 14 2 0 Nitin Bhudia st Habib b Haroon 1 0 0 Kaushik b Rinku 2 0 0 Martin East run out 5 0 0 Mark Bownas b Dipu 19 3 0 Tim Morris not out 13 2 0 David Messina not out 4 1 0 Jim Plai dnb Extras 3nb 18w 2b 0lb 23 Total 25 overs for 8 120

Kohinoor won by 34 runs

'Classy Kohinoor Keep Calm to Bag the Blues'

Second place on the ladder was at stake in this match, and for the Baggy Blues a win was needed to secure a spot in the semi-finals, a security that Kohinoor had already achieved.

Put in to bat on this 'less than 37 degrees' day (what a difference a week makes, about 20C in this case), Kohinoor started shakily indeed. Facing a truly pumped Baggies outfit, Kohinoor wickets tumbled early, amongst many confident shouts for even more frequent treading back to the pavillion. The 'hat-trick ball' unsurprisingly proved not to be to kick off the match, but nonetheless all 4 Baggies bowlers used before the 13-over drinks break had gotten a piece of the action, and the Blues' fielding was – at least according to their captain going into the break – 'perfect'. Kohinoor were in big trouble at 67-6 with more than half of their overs gone and more than half of their batsmen to go with them.

Those who have already seen the final score must rightly ask 'so what happened Baggies?'. Firstly what happened was a now-obviously-foolish gamble that just didn't pay off: in an attempt to close out the match, Leckonby brought himself back on to bowl out his last 2 overs, with Kaushik also finishing off his fine 5-over spell at the same time. Bownas was already used up with the typical 'at least 3 wickets' haul (3 for 21 this time), and this meant that all Baggies' 'strike bowlers' were 'struck out', and the resistance shown by Rinku and Rahat in these crucial overs laid the foundation for an onslaught to end all onslaughts. Rahat himself didn't get to join this party – bowled rather comically around his legs in Martin East's first over – but Salman sure was happy to reap the rewards of their resistance. East bowled steadily to finish with 2 for 21 from 4, but all around him chaos reigned as run outs were missed, catches were dropped, and fences were cleared. The last 6 overs brought 72 runs – thank goodness that final wicket fell with 2 overs still to bowl – and the Baggies' '5th bowler' (shared between 3) cost 60 runs off 4 overs. Lesson: having a balanced team with batsmen all the way down to 11 sure does make a difference! Congratulations to Kohinoor's lower order for holding firm under huge pressure and coming out way on top.

The Blues still stepped out with hopes of coming home with the points, but again an early setback meant that it would be an uphill struggle. Leckonby was run out for 3 to continue his disastrous HCL 2008 with the bat, quickly followed by Dom Ward, bowled off one that surely kept low, but surely couldn't be called a dead ball. The dynamic pace of rampant opener Abed was creating problems even without keeping low, and despite a courageous and determined fightback from Mike Glover (35 and top scorer for the match), the match was never in question. The Blues just didn't have enough depth in the batting ranks, and the earlier blow-out in the field had left a challenge too tough to overcome.

Some light-hearted belting by the lower order against some more 'generous' bowling selections brought the scores closer than they may have been, and Kohinoor ran out comfortable winners in the fading light. Rain drops – threatening all day – began to fall as the players packed their bags. Had they come 5 minutes earlier, well – then I think we would have all got wet, there was no way to take the points from Kohinoor by that stage!

The match report would not be complete without some reference to moments in the game which neither team would be proud of. Stakes were high (well, at least in the context of the fact that this is the Hungarian 1st league, not the Australian or Indian or...) and at times tempers matched them. At the end, yes, a lighter atmosphere had found a way to prevail and genuine friendly handshakes were shared all around with no 'long-term damage', but it is sure that many players will have since reflected on finding new ways to handle such pressures in the future.

Interesting fact: The Baggy Blues are still waiting to finish a match at RAFC with the same ball they started with! Losing about 5 balls against the Tigers, 2 against Kangaroos and this time one in the next-to-last over against Kohinoor, RAFC is proving to be a more expensive location than it first seemed.

Man of the match: Salman, if it HAS to be one player, but really it was a case of 'Whole team effort' to Kohinoor: Kennedy 21 and 2 catches; Salman 24, Rinku 21 when it REALLY mattered (and 1/11 and 1/23 respectively); Haroon 2/19 off 5; Abed GREAT fiery bowling that deserved much more than 1/15.... Mark Bownas with 3/21 and 19 gave the best 'all round' performance – or was it Mike Glover's 35 and GREAT keeping: wonderful stumping and fantastic catch?