DAY FOUR LUXEMBOURG AGAIN

The fourth and final day of the championships. Although the rain had washed out the Cyprus Luxembourg game in Brussels, in Antwerp the sun had shone and Finland had overwhelmed Slovenia winning by 122 runs.

Luxembourg had been working on their calculator again and had realised that to win the championship they would need to post the highest score of the week and bowl Cyprus out for the lowest score of the week. Cyprus on the other hand were playing for pride and second place as Finlands superior run rate put them out of their reach.

So the two teams went into the game with different expectations. Luxembourg with their eye on the championship, and Cyprus needing to prove that they were a better batting side than their results had shown.

Luxembourg won the toss and decided to bat, knowing that they had to post a good total. This was Cyprus second piece of good fortune, now playing to their strength. Their first piece of good fortune was playing on the Antwerp ground that had seen their first victory and had become their good luck ground.

Cyprus now familiar opening bowling partnership, Mike Kyriacou and Chris Markides kept their usual tight line forcing the Luxembourg batsmen to take a chance with their wicket if they were to find the boundary. And needing a high score they had to find the boundary.

Chris Markides took the first wicket in the fourth over, a simple catch offered to Sunil Gururaj at mid on, that of Luxembourg captain and star bat Ramesh Paul. Phil Burleigh was still very dangerous at the other end, scoring freely. Niroshan took the second wicket in the 13^th over with the score on 56, and Chris Vassiliades bowled the dangerous Burleigh in the 16^th over with the score on 78.

Slowing down the pace off spinner Vishnu Naik and swing bowler Sunil Gururaj, restricted the runs and took middle order wickets so that after 26 overs Luxebourg were 110 with six wickets down.

This was hardly the position that Luxembourg would have hoped for, and at this stage the game was leaning towards Cyprus.

Just eight overs later Cyprus were close to tears. One man, no 7 bat Mahdu Ramachandran had inflicted devastation on the Cyprus bowling, hitting one big six after another. In one over he took 24 runs off the unfortunate Sampath Tsangerides who could do nothing to prevent the ball flying back over his head. By the 34^th over the score was 185, already the highest total of the championship, and the game seemed far beyond Cyprus reach.

The return of the opening bowlers controlled the run rate a bit, but only after Ramachandran was out, caught by Sunil off Chris Markides bowling, did it come back under control. But the damage had been done, Ramachandran scoring sixty from only eight overs.

The Luxembourg tail went comparatively quietly, Luxembourg all out for 194 after 38 overs.

If Cyprus had little to loose before the game they had absolutely nothing to loose now. Faced with the highest score of the championship all they could do was to go and play the game they knew how to play back on the fields of Happy Valley, hit the ball as hard and as often as possible.

Sampath Tsangerides went out and did just that scoring 16 by the second over when he was caught. Amit Singh at the other end was more cautious as he took on his usual role of guiding the Cyprus reply, staying at the wicket. An unfortunate call saw Sunil Gururaj run out in the 6^th over with the score on 26.

This brought Niroshan Janaka to the crease. At that time all eyes were on Amit, hoping that he could repeat his match winning innings against Slovenia, but when he was out in 11^th over the game looked to go with him.

But this was to underestimate the exceptional resolve and determination of Niroshan. The only batsman who has shown the technique to overcome the treacherous bounce at Potamia in his match winning score of 98 this year, he applied himself carefully and to maximum effect. Not looking to hit the ball out of the ground, he steered ones and twos away to fine leg and mid off. When Luxembourg fielders filled those gaps he found others, slowly and consistently building up the runs.

At the other end however things were not going so well. The loss of three quick wickets left Cyprus on109 for 5 after 25 overs. Someone had to stay with Niroshan.

As well as Niroshans day this was to be Nalaga Agothocleous day. Coming in at no 8 he showed the same determination to stay as had Niroshan. Together they slowly built up the score, at first cautiously, and then with more confidence, stroking boundaries. It slowly occurred to them that they might reach the Luxembourg total.

On the boundary the Cyprus team hardly dared hope. No one changed places in case it changed their luck. Only Anil was permitted to change the score on the scoreboard even though he was desperate to relieve himself.

By the 30th over the score was 131, by the 35^th 165, by the 37^th 180, by the 39^th 193.

The first ball of the last over brought Cyprus victory as Niroshan hit the ball to square leg to run the last two.

His was a match winning innings of 72, supported all the way by Nalaga with an innings of 41. Their partnership had been worth 84 runs scored over 15 overs. Together they had won the match for Cyprus and Championship runners up medals for their teammates. Thank you.

Match statistics

Cyprus win by 4 wickets

Luxembourg batting

P. Burleigh b C.Vassiliedes 38

R.Paul c Gururaj b C.Markides 11

B.Lyon b N.Pelawatta 17

A Wykes lbw b V.Naik 8

N.Ghandhi c M.Kyriacou b S.Gururaj 18

W.Codd c A.Singh b V.Naik 5

N.Ramachandran c Gururaj b C.Markides 60

A.Pattabiraman run out 10

G.Cope lbw b C.Markides 3

S.Finch not out 2

M.Fitzgerald c N.Pelawatta b S. Tsangerides 1

Extras 21

Total 194 ao

Cyprus bowling

M.Kyriacou 6-0-34-0

C.Markides 8-0-34-3

N.Janaka 8-2-33-1

C.Vassiliades 3-0-18-1

V.Naik 6-1-17-2

S.Gururaj 3-0-13-1

S.Tsangerides 2.1-0-27-1

V.Khandelwal 1-0-15-0

Cyprus batting

S.Tsangerides c M.Fitgerald b N.Ghandhi 16

A.Singh c&b R.Paul 20

S.Gururaj run out 0

N.Janaka not out 72

DT Agathocleous b M.Ramachandran 11

M.Kyriacou c G.Cope b W.Codd 5

C.Vassiliades c R.Paul b W.Codd 4

DN Agathocleous not out 41

Extras 26

Total 196-6

Luxembourg bowling

M.Ramachandran 8-1-30-1

N.Ghandhi 7.1-0-48-1

R.Paul 8-2-35-1

W.Codd 8-0-37-2

M.Fitzgerald 5-0-27-0

A Pattabiraman 3-0-15-0

FINAL TABLE

FINLAND WON 2 LOST 1 POINTS 4 NRR 2.02

CYPRUS WON 2 LOST 1 POINTS 4 NRR 0.79

LUXEMBOURG WON 1 LOST 2 POINTS 2 NRR 0.88

SLOVENIA WON 1 LOST 2 POINTS 2 NRR 0.71