På de to sidste dage var vejret forsat imod danskerne og
alle kampe måtte hastigt arrangeres at blive spillet
indendørs, hvor danskerne sejrede stort.
Friday 14th May
Day two of the Swiss tour, and the
weather gods were still against the Danes and their hopes of
playing outside. So proceedings were again moved to the
fantastic Zurich International School, and another 8 a side,
forty over’s match hastily arranged. Denmark were invited to
bat by the home team, and the Danes were off to a great
start as openers Mads Henriksen 78 and Jannik Wiesse 66
added 182 for a record opening stand at U13 level. The
openers were again well supported by the inform Adeel Ahktar
70*, once again Adeel entertained the large crowd with an
array of fine strokes. The Swiss bowling attack by this
stage were beginning to look a little battered, although
there were a couple of good performances, Josh Boylass’ 3
for 50 in particular being a better spell than his figures
suggested. Denmark closed their innings on a very impressive
335 for 5.
In reply the Swiss batsmen put up their
best display of the three day visit in accumulating a very
respectable 161 for 6 in their allotted 40 overs. The pick
of the home sides innings was the stand between Maresque 31
and Ashwan 30, who managed to assemble a very tidy 106 run
partnership in the middle of the innings. They were very
well supported at the end of the innings by an outstanding
knock of 33*by Pauliner Kratky, one of the very few female
players in the game in Switzerland. For the Danes, the
visitors bowling was very tidy, if not very penetrating. An
encouraging spell of 2 for 8 from Nicholaj Jørgensen
probably being the pick of the bunch.
Coach Simon Talbot was pleased however
with the performance “Another good allround performance from
the boys, our batsman are continuing to grow in stature by
the game, and I am particulary pleased with our fielding
efforts. More effort is needed however in the bowling
department, in the main consistency in line and length.
SCORECARD
Saturday 15th May
Rain, rain and more rain seemed to fall
on Zurich today, as the Danish U13 squad made it way to
Zurich Crickets home ground in Wintetur to attempt their
first outdoor game of the series. However, it was not to be,
so back it was to the International school and another
impromptu T20 International was hastily arranged. For the
Danes it was an opportunity to give some of the lesser used
players on the tour an opportunity to bat, and it was
pleasing to Lavanish 41* (Horsens), Nicholaj Jørgensen (Herning)
to all make decent contributions with the bat as Denmark
amassed a pretty impressive 145 for five from their twenty
overs.
In reply the Swiss batsman found life
pretty tough against a far more consistent, and at times
hostile Danish attack. Once again Maresque was the pick of
the Swiss batting, along with all-rounder Josh Boylass they
were the only two to offer any real resistance. For the
Danes it was leg spin twins Toke Larsen 2 for 4 and Saif
Ahmed 2 for 9 that were the main wicket takers as they
helped restrict the home team to 94 for 9 from their
allotted 20 overs.
So all in all the tour to Switzerland has
to be seen as a worthwhile exercise for the future
development of these young and talented players. There are
still a lot of very important lessons to be learnt both on
and off the field, but this type of experience, and tougher
challenges that lie ahead will all contribute to the
education at International levels. Manager Bent Mikkelsen
explained, “Already I am beginning to see improvements in
our players across the board, some as always, quicker than
others, we basically need to remain focused on both our
individual and team goals, and this group of players will
continue to grow in stature and reach the obvious potential
thy have”. The U13 Danish squad will now prepare for this
weekends upcoming Regional tournament, and they will next be
in action as a team in August (1st - 5th)
again Switzerland when they tour Denmark.
