Budapest Falcons won by 85 runs

Rain can't stop Falcons in bowlers' paradise

With clouds coming and going overhead, the batsmen of both teams were similarly active as the bowlers enjoyed themselves. The amount of swing on display made batting very difficult indeed - twenty wickets fell in the 42.1 overs bowled, with the last coming just minutes before the rain got heavier and would have led to an abandonment. A bonus point victory to the Falcons, but they were made to work by the buzzing Kangaroos.

Due to the late arrival of most of the Falcons, the Kangaroos bowled first and were soon very happy with themselves - both openers gone with just 8 runs on the board, then Tamas Torok snapped up his third wicket to leave the Falcons in disarray. However, a series of missed catches (including two that came out of the hands) meant that Tariq kept the score moving along. He was finally caught for 27 by Tamas off Nick Pastor (playing his first cricket match for a decade, although it didn't show!), but then Suleman took over and played some nice strokes to get to 43 alongside wicketkeeper Akhtar. They took the score from a perilous 87-8 to 130-9 and when the last wicket fell on 136 the Falcons were confident again.

The bowling of the Kangaroos was excellent throughout. The five bowlers used all returned nice figures, although loose final overs by Ujjal and Nick
spoilt theirs somewhat. Nick took three wickets, Tamas came back to take his fourth for just 16 runs, while Zoltan Mago bowled with venom and Claudia Balogh bowled with guile to keep the Falcons in check. Claudia also took a wonderful catch to dismiss Kennedy at point.

In reply, the Kangaroos never got started. Their total of 51 all out was almost half made up of wides as the Falcons bowlers struggled to keep the swing in check. Habib showed his prowess with 16 straight dot balls, including three wickets, and Suleman bowled excellently to return figures of 1 for 5 off 4 overs, then the spinners took over as the rain started to come down. Only Tamas and Nick managed a boundary, but even they couldn't reach double figures as the bowlers ran rampant. Five ducks, perhaps apt given the weather conditions at the end of the match.

If the Kangaroos had been able to survive another 20 minutes, they could have snatched a draw due to abandonment, but that wouldn't have been the right result of the match as a whole. They battled bravely and impressed with the ball, but their batting in the face of impressive bowling let them down. The Falcons move on, but not without a feeling of relief.

Man of the Match: Suleman