Talk:Estonian Cricket League

Estonian Cricket League 2008
Kalev Cricket Club retained their Westons Estonian Premier League trophy in dark and windy conditions yesterday, beating Reval CC by 60 runs. Looking at the dark clouds looming, it was always going to be an important toss to win, and Reval's stand in skipper Oliver Slovodetsky had his first decision of the day to make when he won the toss. He decided to make full use of the cloud cover and put Kalev into bat. Kalev batted solidly for the first 15 overs out of the 35, putting on 40 for no wicket. Slovodetsky then turned to his spinner with instant success. Phil Marsdale did what the experienced quicks Obli and Shiva couldnt do and dismissed the two Kalev openers in successive balls. Shiva then followed up the impetus with a wicket in his final over to leave Kalev on 47-4 off 17. This brought Hazelhurst and South African overseas player Mike Tiffin to the crease, who went about making up for lost time. Hazelhurst scored a quickfire 35 before holing out on the boundry and Tiffin remained undefeated on 68 after a few other useful lower order scores. Kalev finishing on 174-8 off 35 overs. It was dispointment for Shiva as he remained one wicket short of the target he had set himself at the beginning of the day. Still, with 5 an over and the ball not swinging, it was still all to play for. Alas Reval never not going. Uko Nurges fell in the very first over after Vineeth Govind found some swing from somewhere to rip out his off stump. Skipper Slovodetsky had to watch as two further batsman departed in the next overs and he soon found his team at 24-3 off ten overs. Despite some lusty blows from the skipper and Shiva, it was never going to happen for Reval as Slovodetsky fell for 48 and Reval tumbled to 114 all out. Vineeth again finishing with an impressive bowing tally of 4-13-6. So Kalev skipper Andres Burget will be looking for a hat-trick next season, and he and his team have really laid down the benchmark for inter-league cricket in Estonia. Speaking after the game he said: 'I'm so delighted to be picking up the trophy again this season. We knew we would have a hard game today, and when I lost the toss I thought we'd blown it. I was so proud that my boys kept it tight on the field, because we know that on their day, Reval are more than capable of hitting 10 an over, never mind 5. At the end of the day, its not just Kalev who are the winners, but Estonian cricket in general. I'd like to thank Oliver for giving us such a good match, and would like to say to James Ramsden, that if it wasn't for the fact that he was sitting out the match with a groin injury, if he was playing today, I still think we'd have got him out first ball!' Ramsden agreed, but swore that his new 'super groin' will give him more swing next season and he's keen for revenge —Preceding unsigned comment added by Toffeeslot (talk • contribs) 11:17, 23 September 2008 (UTC)