"With just seven games to go of the second season of the Hungarian Cricket League, things are heating up in the middle of the table. With the Royal Tigers and Kohinoor seemingly already guaranteed a place in the semi-finals, the four teams vying for the other two spots played each other on the weekend of Sep 6 and 7."Last year’s runners-up, Genpact, easily disposed of Phoenix, thanks to an unbeaten 52 from Nitin Pant and three wickets from captain Ashok Bhattacharya.
Chasing 184 to win, Phoenix were never really in the hunt, and ended up well beaten and perhaps out of the running for the semi-finals – it only has one match left (against bottom team Comenius) and needs helpful other results.The following day, an exciting match saw Baggy Blues get the better of the all-Hungarian Danubian Kangaroos, despite 41 runs from Tamás Torok.
Hiran de Silva was the expat hero, hitting an undefeated 46 from his team’s total of 142-4.
The Kangaroos could manage only 99 before they were bowled out, with fast bowler Mark Bownas picking up another four wickets to put the Baggies on the verge of qualification.
The previous weekend, Török and Bownas had been representing Hungary in the Prague International Cricket Cup, but, unfortunately, they were not so successful there.
Hungary lost both its games (to Bulgaria and Czech Republic) to end up bottom of its group and thus joint fifth overall. Performances of note came from Andrew Leckonby and Gábor Török with the bat, and Andy Grieve with the ball (5-28 against the hosts).
Hungary’s fifth-place finish was matched by Grieve’s own team, Comenius, in Slovenia on the weekend of Aug 23/24. Last year the team came second, but there was no such luck this time round, with the Hungarian side losing to Slovakia and a Slovenian side.
There are two more weekends of league cricket left this season, with the semi-finals and grand final following straight after. To see who will make it to the semis and end up on top, check www.hungary4cricket.com"
Source: Budapest Sun
12.09.2008