HCL match (25 overs):
Comenius CC vs Phoenix CC
Sunday
21st September 2008 at Seregelyes
Back to the Results page
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Comenius really saved the best till last this season. Fresh from a comprehensive victory over Dunabogdany the previous weekend, they took to the (bumpy) field in good heart, despite the grey clouds overhead, and produced a fantastic performance which won them 6th place in the league. Phoenix had arrived knowing that a win might squeeze them into the semi-finals, but it wasn't quite their day.
So the visiting 10 players set about their task slowly, pinned down by some accurate opening bowling from 15-year-old girl Brigi Hotea and Attila Vakan. Michael Chapman played some lovely shots before Grieve held onto a stinging return catch with the score on 46. Only one other batsman was able to stick around, and that was former Scotland U19 player Robin Sperling. He played a watchful innings full of singles with the occasional four, before blasting Grieve for three straight sixes. Knowing that he was running out of partners (and had one partner who couldn't run!), he continued to attack, but mistimed one from Kristof Noll-Batek and the ball ended up in the safe hands of Grieve. Comenius rejoiced to see the back of Sperling, and rejoiced even more next ball when Ravi gave Szabo an easy catch to give Noll-Batek four wickets and Comenius two points. A disciplined bowling display, aided by some great fielding and catching, after four of their batsmen had reached double figures, was what saw Comenius home. After the match plans were already being made for Phoenix's return for a friendly. Can they exact revenge? Or will the kids come out on top again? Watch this space... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Put into bat, Comenius got off to the very worst of starts, with Attila Vakan driving straight into the midriff (and hands) of Michael Chapman. Zoltan Mago picked up where he had left off the week before with two boundaries, but then became the first of Vijay's four victims. Bithin Roy kept the score ticking along, but had to wait until Zoltan Pajor came to the crease at number 7 for a worthy partner for his clever scampering. The 15-year-old ended up top scorer with 31, while Bithin was finally undone for 28 a few centimetres from safety. Captain Andy Grieve waited until the final over to unleash some big hits, managing two sixes and a four to end the innings on 141, a highly respectable total and Comenius' biggest in the HCL. Vijay's 4-19 was the pick of the bowling, which was depleted owing to the absence of quickie John Marshall and Shobhit Gupta, who called in sick on the morning of the match. 
