By Richard Boxall
Cyprus cricket team experienced a mixed weekend in the World T20 Qualifying Competition in Guernsey, gaining an emphatic win over Greece before suffering a horrible loss to Czech Republic.
After their narrow loss to Spain in their first game, Cyprus approached the next two matches in confident mood, and produced an excellent performance to bowl out Greece for 100 in the 20th over.
Mangala Gunasekara led the way with 2-8, and Scott Burdekin took 3-20, while Chamal Sadun, Taranjit Singh and Vimal Khanduri bowled economically and took a wicket apiece.
As well as winning the game, Cyprus wanted to boost their run rate by scoring the runs as quickly as possible, and they were given an excellent start with an opening stand of 49 by Scott Burdekin and Roman Mazumder. They were followed by a fluent Scott Austin, who top-scored with 25, and Jimi Chialoufas who struggled to find his timing but saw the job through to an 8-wicket win in the 13th over.
The win gave Cyprus a real boost going into their next game the following day, against Czechia. At the toss – which Cyprus won and chose to bat – the Czech captain suggested his team was slightly stronger in bowling than batting. This proved to be the height of understatement, as the Czech bowlers performed superbly whereas their batters were less impressive when chasing an easy target.
The Cyprus batters found life difficult against opening bowlers who were swinging the ball, and later spinners who were not afraid to give the ball air. There were some horrendous dismissals as Cyprus were bowled out for 67 inside 16 overs. Chamal Sadun and Scott Austin were the only batters to reach double figures as the whole team were out to poor shots. The four overs unused at the end proved crucial to the outcome, as Czechia themselves also found runscoring difficult.
To their credit the Cyprus bowlers made a great effort to win the game from a seemingly hopeless position. Taranjit Singh and Mangala Gunasekara took 2-7 and 2-8 respectively from their four overs, and all the bowlers conceded less than 6 runs per over. Czechia were reduced to 45-6 and there was a real chance of an unlikely win for Cyprus.
However they were unable to take any more wickets and the Czechs managed to creep to their modest target at the end of the 18th over, leaving Cyprus to regret the wasted overs and poor batting performance.
The team has one group game left, against the powerful Danish team on Tuesday, and will be hoping to put up a better performance then. Provided they finish in the top four of their group of 5, Cyprus will then have a play-off match against the corresponding team from the other group.
It has so far been a tournament of very mixed emotions, and Cyprus will be doing their best to finish on a high before returning home. For the spectators one highlight has been the dry but knowledgeable commentary by former England Test player Roland Butcher, who gained fame as the first black cricketer to play for England back in the 1980s. How Cyprus could do with him in their middle order!
