The ladies invitation tournament in Belgium began in Meise near Brussels today with four teams from Belgium, Hungary, Germany and the Netherlands.
Belgium v Germany
Germany 98 for 4; Dzifa Buati 19; Monika Loveday 10
Belgium 84 for 9; Sue Moore 22; Poppy McGeown - 18
The weather was partly cloudy, dry and warm. Perfect conditions for a game of cricket. Belgium's young team won the toss and decided to field first. Having never played on artificial ground, Germany started the bating with two promising players, Jenny Langer (TCC) and Dzifa Buati (OCC). Franny Moore, a 12 year old girl from Belgium opened with strong bowling. The German batsman started slow, but picked up speed as the first 2 overs passed. First wicket fell as a result of a well fielded and thrown ball, which gave Jenny runout. Couple of Extras were given, but second wicket was near, bowled by Sarah with an awesome in swinger on middle stump. The next pair lasted for a good amount of runs, when the third wicket was taken with a catch. Captain Stephanie Frohnmayer came in next to bat until the end of the game. While her partner was bowled with a nice straight ball. batters five and six finished the game to a satisfying 99. Even though the target was not over 100 it was still defendable.
Second innings the German team, containing a couple of strong bowlers, put pressure on the now batting Belgians. Opening the batting was captain Lucy Scovell and Sue Moore, who was the lead scorer on the belgian team. She really had the German team working even though she got bowled in the fifth over. The Belgians kept scoring. By the last over the Belgians were up to 79 with two wickets left, when Maura Brauser bowled a great last over giving two runs to the opponents, making the German team win with a lead of 14 runs and 9 wickets.
Topscorers of the German team: Dzifa Buati 19 and Monika Loveday 10
Belgian team: Sue Moore 22 and Poppy McGeown 18
Outstandig Bowling was performed by Stephanie Frohnmayer 3 for 19 and Stefanie Mix with 2 for 26
Hungary v The Nederlands Selection - Hungary won by 3 wickets
Hungary 101 for 5; B. Hotea 27 not out; T. Burna 2-16
Netherlands Selection 100 all out; T. Burna 22; B. Hotea 2-12
After a long, long drive from Budapest (17 hours on the road) the Hungarian Ladies team was exhausted and didn’t expect much from their match against the Holland Ladies Selection – especially when the Dutch team’s aggressive running between the wickets saw them race to a healthy score of 100 all out, with T. Burma scoring 22 runs. However, they did manage to get all of the Dutch batters out – including a great catch from captain C. Balogh, two wickets and a run out for B. Hotea, plus a stumping for keeper M. Hagymasi. A wicket in the first over of the Hungarian innings did not bode well, but B. Hotea came to the wicket and hit 27 not out to steer the team to victory, hitting five boundaries and helping the new batters keep calm and wait patiently for the wide balls and no balls bowled by the Dutch team. T. Burma took two wickets to add to her runs, but the extras kept coming and Hungary finished the match tired but triumphant.
