Baggy Blues 1st XI won by 118 runs

Baggy Blues 1 kept their HCL Premier League title hopes alive by gaining their second win of the season, this time over spirited all-Hungarian side Danubian Kangaroos at the superb Gödöllõ venue last Saturday.

The Kangaroos players continue to demonstrate a steady, all-round improvement, none more so than János Mátyásfalvi who, after Kangaroos captain Viktor Agoston won the toss and put the 'Baggies' in to bat, took an impressive catch in the deep off Tamás Kertész's bowling to dismiss Baggy Blues opener Nick Palmer for eight.

Palmer's fellow opener Mike Glover was a strong, consistent presence throughout the first half of the innings and his 35 runs were crucial in providing a platform for Hiran de Silva (45), Dominic Ward (17), Mahesh Singh (17no) and Damien Naughton (12no) to loosen up at the other end and go for the big hits. Although Kangaroos didn't take all ten wickets in their thirty overs they can surely be encouraged by the tight bowling of the Török brothers and their ever-improving teammates with the ball; Agoston, Kertész and Feri Zsigri, who all took wickets and helped restrict their more experienced opponents to 172-5.

So to the Kangaroos innings with the bat and the Baggy Blues, missing their inspirational captain and opening bowler Andrew Leckonby and New Zealand all-rounder Dean Marshall-Courte, knew they had to bowl and field superbly to protect their total of 172. This they executed in ruthless fashion and Leckonby will be heartened to hear how contributions were made by everyone. Although opening bowler for the day Ward couldn't quite follow up his excellent bowling of the previous month against the Green Kings, his colleagues Nazar, Naughton, Palmer and guest player Lewis Glover all kept accurate lines on or outside off stump and crucially made the ball move as much as was needed to upset the batsmen's rhythm. Glover it was, the 17 year-old nephew of wicketkeeper and opening batsman Mike, who took the first wicket in the second over, knocking back Mátyásfalvi's off stump with a beautiful seaming delivery.

Such was the momentum generated by the fielding side that wickets were to fall regularly thereafter and although big-hitting duo Agoston and Tamás Török briefly threatened to take the game to last season's HCL runners-up, they were accounted for by athletic catches from wicketkeeper Glover from the part-time spin of Palmer (3-23) and the seam of Australian Naughton (2-10) before truly being allowed to settle at the crease. Paceman Abed Nazar, having trapped dangerman Gábor Török for just one, then flushed out the tail to wrap up the Kangaroos innings for just 54, in the process handing BB1 their bonus point for taking all ten wickets for under half of their batting total.

After this result Kangaroos remain fifth in the six-team Hungarian Premier League due to sixth-placed team Baggy Blues 2's defeat against Royal Tigers, while BB1 leapfrog the Green Kings into third place in the table, still behind current leaders Kohinoor whom they face next weekend and reigning champions Royal Tigers.