Sir Oliver Retains National T-20 Crown

Croatia’s national T-20 championships were held at Budenec (on the outskirts of Zagreb) last weekend. The competition, which has now been held for the second time, has been named the „Sv. Ante“ Cup since it is always held on the weekend nearest to Sveti Ante (i.e. June 13th).

Four teams competed in the two-day round-robin competition which took on an developmental character this year, with two coming from Zagreb, one from Vis and also reigning champions from Split, and all thoroughly enjoyed the friendly yet competitive atmosphere. Sveti Ante really turned on the weather for us also, and all matches were played in glorious sunshine with temperatures around the mid 30’s.

Due to the time it takes to get from the Island of Vis to Zagreb (about 7 hours), the islanders opted to play all of their 3 matches on Saturday so that they could leave for home early on Sunday morning and make it back by nightfall. Obviously with this strenuous match schedule in mind, they brought a young and relatively inexperienced team to the competition.

Unfortunately for the islanders they did not manage to win any of their three matches, but put up some spirited performances, particularly against the Hrvatski Sokol “Hawks” when they made 96/8 in their allotted 20 overs. Nevertheless, the experience gained by the Vis players will no doubt stand them in much better stead for next year’s tournament which they are due to host.

The highlights of the days play though would have to be Krešo Franić’s (Hrvatski Sokol “Falcons”) hat-trick – the first in Croatian cricket history – and also young Josip Parić’s (Hrvatski Sokol “Falcons”) effort of 3 wickets in 4 consecutive balls.

Sunday’s matches started with the local derby between the Hrvatski Sokol “Hawks” and the Hrvatski Sokol “Falcons”. The Hawks went in as underdogs but proved that this title was undeserved as they held on to defend their score of 6-92 to beat the Falcons by 4 runs in a close finish.

The Hawks then again proved their quality against reigning champions Sir Oliver from Split. compiling 91 runs (Craig Sinovich (c) 43, Ante Nazor 2-13). Thanks to some early accurate bowling by Miro Bilić (3-3) and Jasen Butković (3-28) the Hawks had Sir Oliver reeling at 6-31 after 8 overs, but last years champions showed their depth and Nikola Davidović (35 n.o.) and Frane Jandrek (27 n.o.) steered them to victory.

Sir Oliver then made relatively easy work of dispatching the Falcons, restricting them to only 73 runs (Jon Locke 18, Tony Grgurić 17) thanks to some tight bowling (Nikola Davidović 3-12, Mate Jukić 2-15, Frane Jadrek 1-11). With this victory, Sir Oliver had again made a clean sweep of the tournament and retained the title. Congratulations go to them for this effort.

“Best Batsman” award went to Nikola Davidović (70 runs), “Best Bowler” went to young Josip Parić (5-19 altogether) and “Best Fielder” went to Marin Jandrek.