Budenec International Junior Cricket Festival

Despite ominous weather forecasts, junior teams from Hungary and Slovenia descended upon the Budenec Oval on the outskirts of Zagreb to play in the inaugural Budenec International Junior Cricket Festival.

What was to be the first introduction to hard ball cricket for many participants, the young men and ladies took to the game as fish to water, which was a good thing considering the heavy showers predicted by the Weather Bureau.

The tournament took the form of T20 cricket, three games a day, with all teams playing each other twice over the weekend. The emphasis being on participation and building friendships rather than individual performance. Thus even in the scorebooks, only first names were used to cultivate the friendly atmosphere.
 

Day 1

With butterflies in the stomachs of all, the Hungarian and Croatian Captains tossed the coin to open the tournament. The Croatian Captain Matek, following in the footsteps of his coach, lost the toss and was sent in to bat. The Croatians ended on 64/8, which the Hungarians chased down in the 14th over and ended on 104/5. Due to the rules of the tournament, each side would bat for 20 overs, regardless of whether they had passed the opponents score. Performance of the match went to Domenika who returned figures of 3/13 off her 4 overs.

Slovenia and Croatia did battle next. Perhaps the highlight of the game and of the tournament was seven year old Christopher Charlesworth’s passion for the game. Slovenia batted first and reached triple figures of 103/8, extras being the top scorer. Matek, Josip and Marko all picked up 2 wickets a piece. Croatia struggled from the start and not even some big hitting from Mijo (25 not out) and the end of the innings saved them from defeat, scoring 80 off their allotted 20 overs.

In a blustering wind and damp conditions, the game of the tournament took place next between Hungary and Slovenia. Slovenia batting first amassed the score of the day and ended on 105/7, with young Luka top scoring with 17. Suzi and Domenika, Hungary’s strike bowlers both picked up 2 victims. What can only be described as a lesson in running between the wickets by young Kasper, the Hungarians ran down the Slovenian total in 18 overs. Highlight of the innings was the 80 run 2nd wicket partnership between Kasper and Soma, the latter who finished on 37 not out.

Day 2

In what can almost be described as winter conditions, day two saw Hungary start the day still undefeated. It was agreed amongst the coaches that games would be shortened to 15 overs a side as the forecast was for heavy showers later in the day.

Slovenia batted first against Croatia in Game 1 and were restricted to 75/3 by their neighbours, whose fielding had dramatically improved overnight. With victory in sight, Croatia started confidently with young Marko adding 24 of 30 balls at the top of the innings. The Slovenian bowlers fought back and to the disappointment of the locals, restricted Croatia to 64/6 of their allotted overs.

Slovenia, now seeking revenge were set for battle against Hungary. The Slovenes bowling first restricted the Hungarians to 86/5, with all the bowlers contributing. Slovenia, now set for victory, hadn’t counted on a remarkable bowling performance from Kasper (4/9). He together with the Hungarian bowlers, backed up by some able fielding saw Slovenia slump to 50 all out, leaving the Slovene’s reliant upon Croatia to beat Hungary if they were to be top of the table.

Croatia once again batted first and managed 75/5 of their 15 overs. Captain Matek (12) the only batsman to reach double figures, while Kasper continued on his merry way picking up 2/14. Hungary now having Slovenia’s fate in their own hands, methodically chased down the Croatian target in 14 overs, finally ending on 88/9. What must be described as a superb fielding effort, 8 of the 9 Hungarian victims were run out.

With two days of Cricket under the belt and the tournament at an end, it was time for participants to receive their participant medals and say their goodbyes. With face book profiles exchanged and weary bones our young cricketers set off for home, looking forward to their next encounters on the playing field.

The Croatian Cricket Federation would like to thank all who lent a hand in making the weekend such a success, especially Agrokor and ICC Europe, without whose support our jobs would be made that much harder.