2020 T20I Balkan Cup

2020 Balkan Cup
	Romania	Bulgaria
Dates	16 – 18 October 2020
Captains	Ramesh Satheesan	Prakash Mishra
Twenty20 International series
Results	Romania won the 4-match series 3–1
Most runs	Ramesh Satheesan (165)	Bakhtiar Tahiri (129)
Most wickets	Shantanu Vashisht (4)	Prakash Mishra (6)

The Bulgaria cricket team toured Romania in October 2020 to contest the Balkan Cup over four Twenty20 International (T20I) matches.^[1] The matches were played between 16 and 18 October 2020 at the Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground in Ilfov County.^[2] Romania's only previous official T20I matches were played in August 2019 during the Continental Cup, which was also hosted at the Moara Vlasiei Ground. Bulgaria lost their previous series against Malta a month prior to this tour.^[3] Bulgaria won the opening match, but Romania took both matches on the second day. The Bulgarians were bowled out for only 60 runs in the final game and Romania went on to claim the series 3–1.^[4]

Squads

Romania[2]	Bulgaria[2]
Ramesh Satheesan (c) Waqar Abbasi Asif Bevinje Petre Danci Pavel Florin Laurentiu Gherasim Marian Gherasim Imran Haider (wk) Ijaz Hussain Aftab Kayani Gohar Manan Patras Masih Satvik Nadigotla (wk) Sivakumar Periyalwar Vasu Saini Abdul Shakoor Sami Ullah Shantanu Vashisht Cosmin Zavoiu	Prakash Mishra (c) Atagul Ahmadhel Sulaiman Ali Rohan Bhavesh Patel Kevin D'Souza Aravinda De Silva Kiran Dasan (wk) Boiko Ivanov Hristo Ivanov (wk) Ivaylo Katzarski Hristo Lakov (vc) Nikolay Nankov Dimo Nikolov Asad Ali Rehemtulla Bakhtiar Tahiri Delrick Varghese

T20I series

1st T20I

16 October 2020 14:00 Scorecard

Bulgaria  128/5 (20 overs)	v	Romania 95 (17.4 overs)
Bakhtiar Tahiri 41 (36) Sami Ullah 2/23 (4 overs)		Abdul Shakoor 20 (25) Sulaiman Ali 2/8 (2.4 overs)

Bulgaria won by 33 runs Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County Umpires: Andrew Begg (Rom) and Syed Atif Naqvi (Rom) Player of the match: Bakhtiar Tahiri (Bul)

• Bulgaria won the toss and elected to bat.
• Asif Bevinje, Marian Gherasim, Aftab Kayani, Vasu Saini, Sami Ullah (Rom) and Asad Ali Rehemtulla (Bul) all made their T20I debuts.
• Marian Gherasim (Rom), at the age of 14 years and 16 days, became the youngest cricketer to play in a men's T20I match.^[5]

2nd T20I

17 October 2020 10:00 Scorecard

Romania  148/2 (15 overs)	v	Bulgaria 96/6 (15 overs)
Ramesh Satheesan 92* (50) Rohan Bhavesh Patel 1/22 (3 overs)		Sulaiman Ali 33 (28) Pavel Florin 2/10 (1 over)

Romania won by 52 runs Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County Umpires: Dharmendra Manani (Rom) and Taranjeet Singh (Rom) Player of the match: Ramesh Satheesan (Rom)

• Romania won the toss and elected to bat.
• The match was reduced to 15 overs per side due to rain.
• Patras Masih (Rom) made his T20I debut.

3rd T20I

17 October 2020 14:00 Scorecard

Romania  209/6 (20 overs)	v	Bulgaria 175/6 (20 overs)
Ramesh Satheesan 67 (32) Dimo Nikolov 2/27 (3 overs)		Bakhtiar Tahiri 66 (44) Waqar Abbasi 2/30 (3 overs)

Romania won by 34 runs Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County Umpires: Dharmendra Manani (Rom) and Taranjeet Singh (Rom) Player of the match: Ramesh Satheesan (Rom)

• Romania won the toss and elected to bat.
• Waqar Abbasi (Rom) made his T20I debut.

4th T20I

18 October 2020 10:00 Scorecard

Bulgaria  60 (14.3 overs)	v	Romania 61/4 (9.4 overs)
Hristo Ivanov 13 (13) Shantanu Vashisht 3/11 (4 overs)		Cosmin Zavoiu 14 (12) Prakash Mishra 2/8 (2 overs)

Romania won by 6 wickets Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County Umpires: Aravinda de Silva (Bul) and Dharmendra Manani (Rom) Player of the match: Shantanu Vashisht (Rom)

• Bulgaria won the toss and elected to bat.

References

1. "Balkan Cup 2020". Cricket Romania (via Facebook). 13 October 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
2. "Romania and Bulgaria men's teams to compete for the Balkan Cup". Emerging Cricket. 14 October 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
3. "Malta national cricket team complete clean sweep in Bulgaria". Sports Desk (Times of Malta). Retrieved 9 October 2020.
4. "Romania win Balkan Cup series against Bulgaria". Cricket Europe. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
5. "Romanian teenager sets new record". Cricket Europe. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2020.

External links

• Series home at ESPN Cricinfo