Danish Cricket Yearbook 2017

n Af Jeremy Bray The 50 over elite division saw an amazing finale whereby Ishøj who proved to be KB’s nemesis all year defeat them once again from the very last ball of the competition. This meant that KB after leading the league for pretty much all of the season, now surrendered top spot to Svanholm CC, who were to become champions of the elite for the season ending 2017. KB no doubt would be bitterly disappointed, needing only 2 runs to win off the final ball, a full toss was bowled and unfortunately for KB saw a mishit which went straight to the short mid wicket fielder who calmly collected the ball and enforced the runout. KB on paper have an extremely formidable side, probably the strongest and most experienced team in the country by a long way, however there depth in strength was also probably there weak link as when really needed, players were looking at other players to perform instead of be- ing the one to make the difference when called upon in tight games. They have the best spinner in the country in Keith Dabengwa by a long way who also contributes well with the bat. If Pawan Sarangal regains full fitness, Aftab Ahmed also gets over his injuries to return to bowl- ing and KBs batters become more selfish to score big runs, then I have no doubt KB will be a serious force again next season. Ishøj will be delighted with their year, coming back strongly in the 50 over competition, where earlier in the campaign they were very much in a battle for relegation with AB. AB had a very tough year and haven’t really re- covered from the loss of Jino Jojo and Abhijit Venkatesh who both moved to KB 2 years ago plus losing two of their more senior players for the 2017 season to Svan- holm, left them very much under strength and putting huge amounts of responsibility on Anique Uddin who got a lot of starts with the bat and also contributed strongly with the ball but just wasn’t quite there when it needed more match winning contributions. Although AB got relegated, it’s not all doom and gloom for them. They started to give more opportunities to some of their upcoming talents, Sami Zeb being one and I have no doubt by going along this route with their younger talents they will look to get back up to the elite within the next couple of years. Herning CC will see their year as a year of what if’s! A lot of Herning’s matches this year went right down to the wire and if they had won a few of these tight battles, then their year could have seen them potentially fighting for the top spot in the league. Herning have without doubt some very talented young players; however they will need to start to perform on a more consistent basis if they want to win the league. The Herning pro Simon Ivetic from Australia will no doubt be disappointed with his year. His highest score came in a T20 match in his first game for the hornets, then after that his contributions were not of what would be expected from an overseas pro and especially considering that Herning is without doubt the very best conditions for batters in the country. Skanderborg had a sea- son that they will prob- ably want to forget. From league winners only a few seasons ago, they are now looking like a total shell of their former selves. With Frederik Klokker moving to Esbjerg next season, Skanderborg will need to see much more from play- ers like Rizwan Mahmood, Anders Bülow and Shang- eev Thas. Shangeev will be extremely disappointed with his season, especially after showing exactly what he is capable of when he represented the na- Danmarksturneringen 2017 Waqas Hafeez (Nørrebro) still going strong Taha Ahmad (Svanholm) med et godt slag Yasir Iqbal (KB) med et godt greb. Mon Leif Slebsager (Herning) i baggrunden havde grebet bolden med den ene hånd i lommen I 4 I DANSK CRICKET ÅRSSKRIFT 20 17