Danish Cricket Yearbook 2017

n Af Keith Dabengwa and Frederik Klokker Denmark U15 went to Holland with mixed feelings about the tour. After four tough matches in Husum against Hol- land, our three main players where playing with the U17 team, who was participating in the World Cup qualifier in Jersey. We also had a few players pulling out because of holidays which was a bit disappointing. We knew that the players we had picked, would fight to the best of their ability and they certainly did that. The tournament had four teams: Holland, Germany, Essex Hawks and Denmark, and we played against each other once with a final at the end. It was a very low scoring tournament, the wickets where low and slow and not made for run scoring. It was difficult to be positive with the bat as the spinners where hard to play, but we knew that at this level. If you have decent spinners you will go a long way in these tourna- ments, because the players find it very hard to score of the spinners. We beat Germany and Essex Hawks in two hard fought games, which were low scoring but we showed great fighting spirit and kept creating chances by some good bowling, which just got us over the line. The same can be said of the two games against Holland, but we just didn’t take our chances. In the group game and in the final, I think we were beaten by one player. Holland had a very impressive lefthanded batter who made all the different in both games. If we had taken him early I am sure we would have won both games. Unfortunately, we ended up on the wrong side of both results. Of all the three disciplines our batting is the weakest. We didn’t have many big scores and contributions from our batters. The Denmark U15 team showed lots of talent and it is obvious that the players are willing to work hard to get better, which is a pleasure to see. Lucky Ali Malik and Abdul Wahid Mahmood showed positives signs as batting allrounders. They got starts but never kicked on and got the big scores we need to make competitive scores and even match wining scores. There were a few others, that with a lot of work in the right areas will grow into good batters. The main things we need to work on, is having the will, patience and the right shot selection, to be able to bat for long periods of time, then we will have a much better chance of making the big scores we need to win games. Bowling was our strength and we put it to good use in all the matches. It was a pleasure to see Lucky Ali Ma- lik taking 7 wickets against the Essex Hawks team. Lucky bowled well in all the matches and was by far the best bowler in the tournament. The spinners Abdu Beghazi and Sami Zeb played a big part in all our games. Abdul Wahid Mahmood where also impressive and bowled very well. They all deserve a lot of credit for getting us into the final. In every match we created opportunities to win. It was only against Holland we came up short, but there was a great fighting spirit in the team, even in the final where we only got 70 odd, we believed we could pull something special off. Unfortunately, we didn't take the early chances we were looking for, so we could build some pressure on them, but the bowlers did their part as they did in every game. A lot of work need to be done regarding our fielding, like in the batting, but something was also encouraging. The players need to take ownership of their fielding. I would like to see the clubs keep improving the fielding stand- ard in the domestic youth league, as it is just not good enough as it is at the moment. We need to work on doing the basics right every time. When we can do that then we can work on all the fancy things. There was a tournament reward for Lucky Ali Malik who throughout the week was outstanding in all three depart- ments of the game. The hosts took great care of us as they do every time we are in the Holland. Further it was a pleasure to be on tour with assistant coach Bashir Shah and the rest of the team, as they all behaved in the way a national team should do. U15 tour to Holland Lucky Ali 7/14 mod Essex H I 34 I DANSK CRICKET ÅRSSKRIFT 20 17