Global Game: Romania win the Sofia Twenty20 tournament

Hosted by Bulgaria at the Vassil Levski National Sports Academy, the tournament brought together the hosts, Romania, Greece and Serbia, and was organised in celebration of the 20-year anniversary of the Bulgarian Cricket Federation. The tournament was the first outing for Bulgaria and Romania since last year’s Balkan Cup, where Romania triumphed 3-1, but Bulgaria couldn’t get revenge this year as their Northern neighbours spoiled the party in the final with a 7-wicket demolition job inside 11 overs.

Electing to bat, Bulgaria reached a middling total of 115/9 from their allotment. Despite having three batters in the top five runscorers of the tournament - Bakhtiar Tahiri, Aravinda de Silva, who recorded his country’s first T20I century against Serbia, and Hristo Lakov - Bulgaria’s top order failed on the big day. Opener and allrounder Lakov was first to go for 12 (11), the first wicket for right-arm seamer Vasu Saini on a day that brought him career-best figures of 4/12. Saini was ably assisted by his medium pace partner Sami Ullah, who removed Lakov’s opening partner Sulaiman Ali on 21 (19) then claimed the Bulgarian middle order with 3/10. Saini’s return spell ensured the hosts would not make a recovery as he wiped out the lower order; Kevin D’Souza (20 off 9) was the only Bulgarian to cut loose with a pair of boundaries and a six off Romanian skipper Ramesh Stheesan, but Sami castled him the next over to snuff out hopes of a rearguard.

The chase from Romania was over almost as soon as it began, with openers Taranjeet Singh (39 off 16) and Ramesh Satheesan (22 off 11) going at 15 runs per over as they passed 60 inside four overs. Hristo Lakov tried gamely to contain the damage with 1/37 from his quota, claiming the first wicket of Taranjeet. But new man Gohar Manan’s 27 (14) ensured the boundaries kept flowing, and with Lakov lacking support the Romanians ran away with it in 10.2 overs.

The final was at least less of a mismatch than Romania’s semi-final against bottom-placed Serbia, who were dispatched in just 5.4 overs with a pair of brutal half-centuries from Taranjeet (57* off 19) and Satheesan (56* off 15). After opting to bat at the toss, Serbia was carried by Leslie Dunbar’s 55* (41) to 115/7 off their 20 overs, but once the openers Slobodan Tošić (15 off 30) and Wintley Burton (17 off 18) were dismissed after a sluggish start, nobody else reached double figures. Wickets were shared around, but cult hero Pavel Florin grabbed the best figures with 2/22 (to land as joint leading wicket-taker for the tournament, with 7) as he foxed Jovan Reb and Nemanja Zimonjić who were out swinging. Appearing in their first internationals since a 2019 tri-series in Corfu with Greece and Bulgaria, Serbia’s spanking in thesemi-final was indicative of a disappointing campaign where they failed to win a game.

Bulgaria’s semi-final against Greece, meanwhile, ended in frustration after the hosts posted an even 140 in 19.5 overs, with young Greek left-arm wrist spinner Georgios Galanos scalping 3/17plus a runout to suck the momentum out of Bulgaria’s innings. The Greeks looked threatening in their response, with skipper and keeper-bat Anastasios Manousis unbeaten on 17 from 10, but rain began falling after 3.5 overs with the score on 33/2 and no further play was possible. This left the match to be decided on positions in the group stage. It was a disappointing end to the campaign for Greece, but not an unfair reflection of their performance - they were thrashed by 64 runs by Bulgaria (Hristo Lakov slammed 68* to take the hosts to an unassailable 197/4), pushed Romania but fell short in a battling 3-wicket loss (Galanis and Spiridon Gasteratos punched through the middle order after a dominant partnership between Manan and Satheesan), and completed a comfortable 5-wicket win over fellow strugglers Serbia.

Global Game is a collaboration between the ICC andEmerging Cricket.