Cyprus takes its first steps towards Euro 2009 as the team plays the first of the warm up matches.

Lying in second place behind Finland in 2006 both Cyprus and Finland were promoted to Div 3. In 2007 Cyprus finished one place ahead of Finland. Now the two rivals face up again in 2009. With them Austria, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Switzerland play for the title in the newly structured European Div 3.

CYPRUS v ISLAND xi

The team reformed for its first practice game. Old faces and a few new young faces took to the field at Happy Valley for a match against the very strong Island xi.

The island xi batted first, loosing their openers Taraka and Dias cheaply. Then a partnership grew between Manju and Dileep when seemed unbreakable. Both were scoring freely, ratcheting up a depressingly large total. With the partnership worth over 100, Niroshan managed to get both in a magic over, Manju lbw for 58 and Dileepa caught by Nalaga on the boundary for 55. But no sooner was one partnership dismissed than another took shape between Kapila and Rubel. Together adding another 50 runs Rubel (34) was finally caught off the bowling of Sampath A, with the careful Kapila (23) folowing a few overs later, bowled by Sampath A. It was a relief for the Cyprus team, but the damage had been done. With hardly any contribution from the lower order batsmen, the Island xi was all out for 194, six overs short of their 40 overs.

Despite cameos from Kashif (28) Sampath A(24) Niroshan (30) and Mike K (26) , the Cyprus team were never really in the game. Strangled by accurate Island bowling, especially off spinner Kapilla who gave only 9 runs from his 6 overs, Cyprus fell away 140 all out.

Island xi batting

Taraka 4, Dias 0, Manju 58, Dileepa 55, Kapila 23, Rubel 34, Nalin 3, Raj 0, Rience 0, Ranga 3 no, Vishnu 1.

Cyprus bowling

Mike K 7-35-0, George P 6-39-2, Sampath A 7-42-3, Kashif 6-16-2, Niroshan 5-34-2, Gill 2-15-0, Sampath T 0.5-1-1.

Cyprus batting

Kashif 28, Muhammad 6, Sampath a 24, Nalaga 0, Niroshan 30, Anil 0, Mike K 26, Sampath T 0, Danuka 12 no, Gill 0, George P 0.

Island bowling

Raj 6-26-1, Riance 6-26-1, Kapila 6-9-0, Manju 8-25-4, Dileepa 8-20-2, Vishnu 4-14-0, Robel 1-5-0, Nalin 0.3-0-2.

CYPRUS v SARACENS (UK Touring side)

In the first of three games against touring sides this October Cyprus took on a side of expeience and youth from North London. Usually the UK touring sides bring a side of one or two stars supported by a solid caste. The Saracens fell into the mould with a very effective opening bowling pair swinging the ball away. Anil and Bhatti opened for Cyprus but fell to the curse of Cyprus openers, both out with only ten runs between them. Sawar was now batting with Kashif, until Kashif saw his wickets sprayed by J Manson for 10. Some stability was needed and fortunately for Cyprus Sawar and Niroshan managed to reconstruct the innings with a partnership worth over 50 runs.

Both built steadilly without any grand gestures. Saracens replaced their medium pace with spin which contained the batting to 3 an over. Niroshan (19) was eventually stumped off spinner Young but not before the pair had built a platform from which the middle order might launch an attack in the last ten overs. Sawar started to open up supported by Mike K at the other end, but an injury forced him to retire, top scoring with 76.

Joined by Gill, Mike went after the bowling only to lop a catch to covers. Gill scored a quick 17 but despite best intentions no one managed to get on top of the Saracens bowling. The innings finished on 158-6. It had been a tough ride and Cyprus had worked hard for a defendable score.

Saracens openers Ayre and Archer started brightly only for Archer (6) to be caught by Kashif in a sharp slip catch off Mike Ks bowling. No 3 Manson J went for 4 caught behind off Niroshan. Although his partners had not contributed many runs, both partnerships had been worth 30 runs, with Ayre (43) doing most of the scoring.

When he was bowled by Kashif , it looked like the back of the Saracens batting was broken. Munday G batted nobly with the middle and lower order but noone was able to break out of the net that the Cyprus bowlers were pulling tight.

A late flourish from G.Bigby, scoring the only six of the Saracens innings , left his team on 123 -8 after 40 overs..

Cyprus batting.

Anil 6, Bhatti 3, Sawar 76 (retired), Kashif 10, Niroshan 19, Mike K 6, Gill 17, Dilshan 4 no, Nalaga 1no, Vishnu and George P dnb.

Saracens bowling

Morgan R 8-22-1, Morgan J 8-35-2, Manson C 8-33-0, Bigby M 8-19-2, Young A 8-43-1.

Saracens batting

Ayre 43, Archer 6, J Manson 4, G.Munday 16, Dunn J 4, A Bigby 2, Barlow 11, Morgan 9, Manson C 5, A Young 2no, M Bigby 7 no.

Cyprus bowling

Mike K 8-15-1, George P 5-21-2, Niroshan 8-23-1, Kashif 6-18-3, Vishnu 5-8-0, Gill 4-7-0, Dilshan 1-5-0, Bhatti 3-14-2.

CYPRUS v ASHFORD CC

The Cyprus national team took on Ashford CC, touring fron the UK. for the third of their four matches this month. The Cyprus team is testing new players and trying new batting and bowling combinations during these games so results were expected to be sacrificed to experimentation. Nevertheless the teams form has been consistent , without showing the vulnerabilities of the past. We seem to be moving ahead with purpose.

Mohammad and Bhatti took to the crease to open for Cyprus. The opening partnership has been a problem for the national team. Too often a low scoring opening partnership has lead either to a collapse of the middle order as they attempt to make up the deficit, or a debilitating slow run rate as the remaining batsmen try to conserve their wickets.

So the start was very importand and this time the openers managed to make a fist of it. Batting through to the tenth over in a partnership of 32. Mohammad (15) was out to a soft delivery from S.Cousins, caught in two minds, lobbing the ball up to gully, and the next over Bhatti too was caught off Jackmans bowling.Sawar and Niroshan were propelled into the centre simultaneously, needing to reestablish the innings. Niroshan (8) fell after 8 overs and it was left to Sampath Arthanayake to continue to build the innings with Sawar.

The two managed a fifty partnership, against tight spinbowling from teenagers S.Cousens at one end and medium pace for his 6ft 4ins brother L.Cousens at the other, before Sampath was caught and bowled by White off a mistimed drive that just went straight up and down. With just 9 overs left and the score standing at 96, a little bit of urgency needed to be injected in the batting. Kashif (8) obliged hitting a six in his first over, but fell to Beresen cuaght just short of the long off boundary as he tried to replay the shot.. In the ensuing scurry for runs Sawar (31) ran himself out . Mike K(22) Mike Kyriacou played his usual cameo, first probing the bowling and then accelerating before he was caught of Knill, leaving Nalaga and Quamar to take as much as possible from the last two overs, Quamar managing the only other six of the innings. After their 35 overs the Cyprus xi were 153 for 7. This proved to be a defendable total against the Saracens touring side last week, and so Cyprus took to the field with a quiet confidence.

Asford on the other hand knew they had the firepower, and so were quietly counting the overs before they overtook the score. But things did not go well from the start. Openers Swain and S Cousens were out by the fourth over to Mike K and Kashifs bowling and no 3 Ford bowled two overs later by a effort ball from Kashif. Frost looked dangerous for a while, resisting for 6 overs before he was caught off a quite stunning catch by David Bailey ay mid off from Niroshans bowling.

This was the start of another golden patch for Niroshan who took 4 wickets for 4 runs from his four overs while Sampath Arthanayake bowled his three overs at the other end without conceding a run. By the break in the 17 over Ashford were all but on the bus. A resilient rearguard action from Genty Knott who batted for 15 overs for his 5 runs, kept the flame alive.

By over 24 the game was up, with Genty Knott undefeated but Ashford all out for 58.

Cyprus batting. Mohammad 15, Bhatti 11, Sawar 31, Niroshan 4, Sampath Arthanayake 19, Kashif 8, Mike K 22, Nalaga 5, Quamar 7,. Vishnu, Bailey dnb.

Ashford bowling. Berressen 7-20-1, J.Knill 5-19-1, Jackman 5-2-1, S.Cousens 7-13-1, L Cousens 5-28-1, J. White 7-26-1.

Ashford batting Swain 2, S Cousens 8, Ford 1, Frost 18, Genty Nott 5 no, Berressem 0, Pryke 0, White 0, L Cousens 4, Knill 6, Jackman 10.

Cyprus bowling. Mike Kyriacou 5-23-1, Kashif 5-5-1, Sampath Arthanayake 3-0-0, Niroshan 4-4-4, David Bailey 3-14-2, Vishnu 3-10-1, Nalaga 1-2-0.

CYPRUS v ARDEN TAVERNERS (UK touring side)

The last game of the touring season saw the Cyprus national team play against Arden Taverners from Warwickshire. This is a team well known to Richard Cox of Warwickshire CC, who has coached the Cyprus team on occasion, and so it was no surprise, knowing that he was holidaying in Cyprus, that he came by to watch the game.

Once again Cyprus batted first. Old demons revisited as a top order collapse left the team five wickets down by the twelfth over with only 22 runs scored. Quamar (0) caught behind off the bowling of the Warwickshire county player Luke Parker, Bhatti (4) and Amit (5) bowled by Parker, and Niroshan (5) lbw Kerby, bowling from the other end, followed soon after by Nalaga (4) from a skyer caught by the infant of the side Lewis, after watching the ball hover in the air for an interminable amount of time amid an anxious silence from the rest of his team.

It came down to the two heavyweights in the Cyprus side, Han and Robel, to save the day. The two seemed unfazed by the bowling attack which had undone their teammates, and attacked from the outset, ramping up the run rate from just under two to over 5 an over.

After 19 overs, when Robel (25) was caught off Wilkinsons bowling, the score had moved on to a more respectable 58.

Han managed to push on, helped for a while by Muhammad (9) for 7 overs, who overplayed his hand to be bowled by Kerby, and then by Mike Kyriacou (11) for another 7 over eventually bowled by Wild, to reach his fifty taking the score on to 125 before he too was bowled by Wild on 52.

The lower order batsmen had to contend with the return of the Parker managed to drag the score up to 137 before Vishnu (7) bowled by Woodward left David Bailey at the crease on 3.

In these four warm up games the Cyprus team has managed to reach 135+ scores. The pace has sometimes been slow and steady, or like this game a couple of batsmen have managed to retrieve what should have been a lost position, but the painful reminders of past batting collapses seems, for the moment at least, to be receding.

Arden suffered at setback as their opener Dean Brookes (1) fell in the third over bowled by Mike Kyriacou. No 3 John Day (2) fared no better caught off Niroshan in the next over. The Ashford game seemed to be replaying itself and the bowlers were steaming in with a little more purpose hoping for a batting collapse. But it didnπt happen.

Opener Jon Hartley formed a tentative partnership with Ken Lunn (9) before he was caught off Vishnu in over 13. This brought Luke Palmer to the crease. Both teams knew that his innings would determine the outcome of the match. Opener Jon Hartley (17) fell two overs later,,bowled by Robel, but it was already obvious that all his partner had to was return the strike, for Luke Palmer to ratchet up the Arden score. Graham Wilde fell in over 31 caught of leg spinner Muhammad scoring seen in a partnership of 64 which had built up over 15 overs . But the next wicket was Palmers, 3 overs later, caught and bowled by leg spinner Han. With 6 overs and 21 runs needed the game was wide open again. John Mathews was run out a couple of balls later and no 8 and 10 were at the crease with only the 10 year old Lewis to come. But the two kept their composure, Martin Woodward (4 no) hitting the winning run from the first ball of the last over, with partner John Kerby (15 no) having done the real damage taking a six and a four from the two previous overs.Arden 138 for 9.

Cyprus batting. Quamar 0, Bhatti 4, Amit 5, Niroshan 5, Nalaga 4, Han 52, Robel 25, Muhammad 9, Mike Kyriacou 11, Vishnu 7, David Bailey 3 no.

Arden bowling. J.Kerby 8-15-2, Luke Palmer 8-18-3, G Wild 7-26-2, M Woodward 5.1-24-2, R Wickson 3-16-1, Mike Perkins 7-31-0.

Arden batting. J Hartley 17, D Brookes 1, J Day 2, K Lunn 9, L Palmer 57, R Wickson 1, G Wild 7, M Woodward 4 no, J Mathews 1, J Kerby 15 no, Lewis dnb.

Cyprus bowling. M Kyriacou 8-26-1, Niroshan 8-25-1, Robel 8-15-1, Vishnu 6-21-2, Han 7-25-1, Mohammad 2.1-5-1.