Croatian National Cricket Team Makes Clean Sweep at 2004 ECC Representative Championship

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Zagreb/Ljubljana - There are few things that Croats like more than a good challenge and a chance to further enhance their nations formidable sporting reputation. And this was exactly the opportunity that presented itself to the members of Croatia's national cricket team who recently competed at the 2004 European Cricket Council's Representative Championship held in Ljubljana, in neighbouring Slovenia, between the 15^th and 20^th of August.

The Croatian squad consisted of:

John Vujnovich (Captain)

Craig Sinovich (Vice-Captain)

Paul Vujnovich

Jeff Grizinic

Pero Kastelan

Phil Siljeg

Tony Govorko (w.k.)

Paul Musin

Jasen Butkovic

Zdenko Leko

Tomislav Belobrajdic

Antonio Lipanovic

Sinisa Vodopija

Frane Vujnovich (Manager)

Winning the tournament was an imperative. Only the first placed team would be promoted into the 8-member European `B' league and participate in next year's ECC Trophy to held in Spain or Greece whilst the remainder of the teams would be banished to the European cricketing wilderness for the next two years at least. The challenge was tremendous as we had to beat Switzerland, Finland and Luxembourg who had been relegated from the `B' league last year, as well as traditional rivals Slovenia and the unknown quantity in Bulgaria.

The task at hand was quite clear - win all five matches and eliminate any possibilities of being beaten on run rate or some other quantitative rather than qualitative criteria. For those in the team who believe in superstitions the arrival at the hotel in Ljubljana presented a clear sign as to the outcome of the week-long tournament. The first thing we stumbled across in the car-park was a gold coin, which just happened to be a 50 cent coin. The message was obvious - Croatia would take gold with a win-loss ratio of 5:0.

Game 1 - Slovenia

On paper Croatia had a far better side than their traditional rivals Slovenia, but as the old adage goes `cricket is a funny old game' and the Slovenes had the advantage of playing on their new home ground.

Croatia won the toss and elected to bat on an unpredictable wicket and extremely slow outfield. Runs were hard to come by in the early overs, and by the drinks break which fell after the 17th over, or half way through the innings, Croatia had lost both of it's opening batsmen, the Vujnovich brothers for a moderate 49 runs. The run rate needed to be lifted and that's exactly what vice-captain Craig Sinovich (45 off 53 balls) and Jeff Grizinic (23 runs) did with an outstanding 69 run third-wicket partnership. They helped Croatia to a final score of 5 for 134 of the allocated 35 overs.

Knowing that the total was not unbeatable, the Croats had to put in a great performance in the field to contain Slovenia's strong batting line-up. A fiery opening spell from John Vujnovich (7 overs - 2/11) and Phil Siljeg (4.3 overs - 1/10) kept the Slovene's to less than two runs per over for the first ten overs, putting them under pressure to start playing some shots and score more quickly. This opened the door for the first change bowlers to claim some wickets, and Paul Musin took most advantage of this to claim 3/29 off his 7 overs in his debut match for Croatia.

In the end, Croatia bundled Slovenia for 96 all out in just 29 overs to claim a 38 run victory and take the first step towards a clean sweep.

Game 2 - Bulgaria

Bulgaria had been thrashed by Switzerland the day before and Croatia decided to use the game to give invaluable experience to the local based players. Again Croatia won the toss but this time elected to bowl.

This proved to be a good decision as Croatia proceeded to destroy the developing team of Bulgaria, bowling them out for a meagre 38 in just 15.2 overs. In the bowling department Jasen Butkovic emerged with the best figures of 3/1 off just 2 overs and especially pleasing were the first international wickets taken by Sinisa Vodopija and Antonio Lipanovic from the island of Vis. It is worth pointing out that both Sinisa and Antonio had never seen a cricket ball let alone cricket match until about 18 months ago when they became involved in the resurrection of cricket on the island of Vis (which believe it or not was first played there almost 200 years ago when the island was a British naval base during the Napoleonic Wars).

With such a low score to chase, Croatia reversed it's batting order to give the locally based players a chance to bat as well. Tomislav Belobrajdic and Sinisa Vodopija scored their first runs for Croatia, but the sharp opening attack of Bulgaria managed to dismiss four of Croatia's batsmen before they reached the target of 39 runs in the 16th over. The second leg of the journey was out of the way.

Game 3 - Finland

This game was a mini-final, as both teams were undefeated coming into this match and Finland was the first seeded team having already defeated second seeded Switzerland, a win by Finland would practically guarantee them first spot. Having won the toss, captain John Vujnovich had no hesitation in electing to bat first and force the Fins to bowl.

The Vujnovich brothers got off to a solid start with the bat and when Paul Vujnovich was dismissed for 27 Croatia were on 48 runs in the 14th over. Things started looking bad when Jeff Grizinic was run-out after a mix-up in the next over, however captain John Vujnovich and vice-captain Craig Sinovich steadied the ship with a 69 run third wicket partnership, taking the score to 117 before Sinovich was caught deep on the mid-wicket boundary. John Vujnovich was dismissed for 67 off just 79 balls and played a major part in getting Croatia to 5 for 153 off their 35 overs.

Once again the score was solid, but didn't guarantee victory. The work had to be done in the field, but things were looking ominous as Finland got off to a flying start, scoring 21 from the first four overs. Openers J. Vujnovich and Siljeg came back hard to restrict the Fins to just 13 runs from the next six overs and also take a vital wicket thanks to a great catch at wide first slip by Paul Vujnovich. Fired up by this sensational catch slow bowlers P. Vujnovich went on to take 4/3 off his 7 overs while his bowling partner at the other end Sinovich took 3/17 off his seven overs. This match-winning 14 over spell saw the Fins lose 7 wickets for just 23 runs, thanks to some great bowling but also to the wicket-keeping prowess of Tony Govorko who claimed a very sharp catch and three lightning fast stumpings standing up to both bowlers.

In the end Croatia bowled out Finland for just 77 runs in 27.3 overs and took a large step towards securing first place at the tournament.

Game 4 - Luxembourg

Although Luxembourg were without a win in the tournament to this point, Croatia could not afford to take this game lightly.

Again Croatia had the opportunity to bat first and took full advantage, as the Vujnovich brothers made an undefeated opening stand of 176 in the allotted 35 overs, with both brothers finishing on 82 not out. After this batting effort and some excellent batting and bowling feats in earlier matches, both Vujnovich brothers were starting to stake a claim for the player of the tournament award.

Having bowled 35 overs in the hot afternoon sun and not having taken a wicket, a tired looking Luxembourg were struggling at 4/49 at the mid-way drinks break, with 128 need off the remaining 18 overs, or more than 7 runs per over. The situation looked even more dire for Luxembourg at the 25 over mark when they were 5/73 and needed 104 to win off the last 10 overs, or 10.4 runs per over. However, what was looking like a comfortable victory started to slip away with a few dropped catches and some fielding obviously affected by tiredness. Again, captain John Vujnovich righted the ship by taking 2 crucial wickets in his final two over spell and Luxembourg fell just 10 runs short of Croatia's total when they were bowled out in the 35th over.

Incredibly, Croatia were 4:0 in terms of wins and losses and were going into the final crunch match against Switzerland undefeated.

Game 5 - Switzerland

Even though Croatia would probably have won the tournament on run rate if they lost to Switzerland, the team was totally focused on ending the tournament undefeated and finishing the tournament as undisputed champions, as well as gaining revenge for last years defeat against the Swiss.

Surprisingly Switzerland sent Croatia in to bat after winning the toss, and the Vujnovich brothers went on to take full advantage with an opening partnership of 116. The score was taken on to 174 before losing their second wicket, when Jeff Grizinic was again unluckily run out for 18 after a mix-up. Paul Vujnovich made a magnificent 92 and made a major contribution to Croatia's total score of 4/191.

Opening bowler Phil Siljeg bowled his fastest and sharpest spell of the tournament in this critical match and finished with figures of 4/16 off his 7 overs. Switzerland were struggling at 2/23 after the first 10 overs and the tournament was looking like it was almost in the bag. However, a spirited fight back by the Swiss middle-order, who had scored most of their runs throughout the tournament, saw the score go to 3/74 after 20 overs and then 4/115 after 25 overs, leaving just 77 to win off the last 10 overs. The score went to 156 at the 31 over mark and with 4 wickets in hand Switzerland started to believe that they could win it from that position. Big Phil Siljeg put pay to any such ideas with 3 wickets in his final two overs and Switzerland fell 18 runs short of Croatia's total, leaving Croatia with an unblemished 5:0 record and the opportunity to something we do as well as we play cricket.... celebrate the moment.

A champagne effort. Croatia celebrates after beating Switzerland and winning all 5 matches.

Gold for Croatia

It seems that the gold coin found at the start of the week was an omen of sorts after all, and it was a golden performance by Croatia overall in the tournament. Apart from gaining promotion to the `B' league in Europe, Croatia went from 4 international victories to 9 international victories and has moved into the top 50 ranked cricketing nations.

To add icing to the cake, Paul Vujnovich was named player of the tournament (having scored 260 runs at an average of 86.6 to lead the tournament in batting and bowled 25 overs and taken 6/79 at an average of 13.2) to give Croatia a total clean sweep of the tournament. Phil Siljeg was the best bowler of the tournament with figures of 10/69 from 27 overs, and in total Croatian bowlers filled 5 of the top 12 places.

And if only I could write about the social and team-spirit aspects of the week we made a clean sweep there too, but ..... what goes on tour stays on tour ...... so those details you'll have to get from the individuals who were fortunate enough to take part in this important chapter in Croatia's cricketing history. I'm sure that they'll be only too happy to oblige in sharing the great spirit that helped bring about this victory.

For more details on scorecards and other information log on to www.cricketeurope.com/ecc.