Final Cricket Triumph For Crown in Budapest

Finals Day opened with a 12-over semi-final between the second- and third-placed teams in the league - Titanic CC and Genpact XI. The latter got off to a slow start, but an unbeaten second-wicket partnership of 79 between Ashok Bhattacharya (46 not out) and Prakhar Singhal (35 not out) upped the run-rate and set Titanic an imposing target of 117 to win. Tight bowling and a weakened batting line-up meant that once the big hitters had departed there was only one winner. It was a cruel end for Titanic, who have always entertained and played with great spirit.

So on to the final. Losing the toss and being made to field again after a 45-minute luch break was not the best news for Genpact. Crown's opening pair of Manish Jain and Amandeep Singh started off steadily, but wickets fell at regular intervals as Crown crawled to 114 all out off 25 overs. Only wicket-keeper Sameer Khan, with a brisk 27, and Suman Manuel reached double figures and the highest partnership was just 19 runs. The most successful bowler for Genpact was Martin Dunstone with three wickets, but Nitin Pant took another two wickets in this innings to take his HCL tally to 21 wickets and further his claim for the Best Bowler award.

Genpact had the feeling that they had the match under control, but they were soon undone, with the score reading 11-4 off 2.3 overs. More importantly, semi-final hero Bhattacharya was one of the men to depart, out for a second-ball duck. Kumar steadied the innings for Genpact, sharing partnerships of 20 with Singhal and 38 with Pant, but he fell with Genpact still 40 runs behind when an ankle injury proved his undoing - he was acrobatically caught behind by Khan off the bowling of Lucky Singh immediately after receiving some treatment. The Genpact tail did not wag very much and the result was no longer in doubt, Crown celebrating victory in the 20th over when Manish Sinha became Khan's fourth victim (two catches, two stumpings).

The most successful bowler for Crown was Suman Manuel who took three wickets for just 11 runs off his 5 overs, while Amandeep, Lucky and Bobby Kaura each took two wickets. By getting the early wickets and then by containing the batsmen, the Crown bowlers got the job done and gave Crown their get-out-of-jail card after a disappointing batting display. Khan's brisk knock of 27 and his four victims behind the stumps saw him earn the man of the match award and make him a very strong contender for the Best Wicket-keeper award of HCL 2007.

So Crown finally emerged as the winners of the inaugural Hungarian Cricket League for the year 2007. Next year plans are afoot to increase from six to ten teams with many more Hungarians playing. Indoor training will commence in November.

The Hungarian Cricket Awards Evening on Monday October 15 will cap a fantastic year, which has seen over 30 matches in Budapest as well as tours to England, Austria and Slovenia.

Back in February very few of the people in Becketts for the first meeting about organised cricket in Hungary would have foreseen the progress made in just a few months. What will next year bring?

For more information about cricket in Hungary go to www.hungary4cricket.com