Portugal: Lisbon's seven year Kendall Cup itch is over

After an absence of seven years, the Kendall Cup is back in Lisbon following their win over Oporto in this years match on 14th & 15th July. The margin of Lisbon's victory was an emphatic innings & 46 runs.

The recovery of the much prized Cup was the result of a concerted team effort by the Lisbon players against stubborn resistance from a somewhat weakened Oporto XI from which some of the more famous names were absent.

Torben Rankine, captaining Lisbon, could not have chosen a better toss to win and by electing to bat first he condemned Oporto to field in almost continual light rain for most of Lisbon's first 9and only) innings.That, however, does not detract from the excellent batting which Lisbon produced in reaching a total of 291 for 5 declared after 57 overs.

Rankine and Nasirulah Khan started the innings with a brisk opening stand of 87 before Khan was caught by Burgess off Selbourne for 51. Good contributions followed from Paulo Buccimazza (29), Nicholas Walker (36) before David Bevan plundered 49 at the end, smashing the hapless Selbourne for 22 off his final over. The prime innings, however, came from skipper Rankine with an elegantly accumulated 86. Of the Oporto bowlers, Ed Chambers delivered 24 of the 57 overs bowled. Although he only took one wicket, he maintained a lively pace, with good line & length throughout his long spell which yielded only 85 runs, no small achievement in the wet conditions.

Ian Selbourne - until his disastrous last over - comanded respect and recorded figures of 3 for 64. Lisbon's declaration at 291 for 5 gave them a little under 30 minutes of play on the first day to exert pressure on the Oporto batsmen. By this time, the rain had given way to pleasant evening sunshine and as if inspired by the occasion, Lisbon's opening bowler Carlo Buccimazza produced a perfect swinging yorker with his 5th delivery to trap James Burgess LBW for 0. The day's proceedings eventually came to an end with Oporto on 4 for 1.

With the second day dawning bright & sunny, Lisbon's only hope of victory was to capture 19 more wickets in the day and to make Oporto follow-on. That seemed a fairly tough task with the good batting wicket and the Oporto batsmen determined to block out time. As Oporto opener John Regain was overheard to say, "I'll be quite happy to be there with 0 not out at the end." In the event, he faced 99 balls for his 5 runs but fortunately for Lisbon his tenacity was beyond the scope of most of his team mates.

Ed Chambers followed his heroic bowling performance on Saturday to be Oporto's hero with the bat on Sunday. He scored a splendid unbeaten 81 out of the 142 which Oporto scored in 61 overs. Lisbon used 8 bowlers but Carlo Buccimazza was the main destroyer ending with the highly creditable figures of 7 for 55 off his 20 overs.

Oporto's score meant that Torben Rankine could ask Oporto skipper to follow-on which he duly did. Oporto were thus faced with scoring 149 to make Lisbon bat again or batting out the three remaining hours themselves.

Chambers kept his pads on and opened with the limpit-like Regan and the pair took and gave no chances in clawing their way to a respectable 43 without loss at tea-time. Lisbon's hopes seemed at that stage forlorn but shortly after the break, Chambers fell to a stinging catch by Cheema in the gully off Camlesh for 37 ending another innings og high quality wherein he mixed aggression with rocklike defence insensible proportions.

With Chambers gone, Regan followed shortly thereafter and the Lisbon side seemed to pick up the scent of victory. A procession of middle order batsmen came and went in quick succession and only some last ditch stubborn resistance from Freddy Cobb (11) and Steve Rogerson (16) delayed the inevitable. It was in the 5th of the final 20 overs when the Lisbon team and their supporters were able to celebrate as Oporto No 11 Ian Selbourne lobbed up a catch to Cheema at mid-wicket to conclude the innings at 103. Carlo Buccimazza again recorded impressive figures of 3 for 6 giving him match figures of 10 for 61.

This was the 76th match played for the Kendall Cup since its presentation in 1920 although the annual inter-city fixture between Lisbon & Oporto dates back to 1861. In the 140 years, the records now show that both sides have won on exactly 51 occasions.