CIYMS v Larne - Saturday 5th June 2004 |
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Larne travelled to Belmont on Saturday to take on CIYMS looking for a change of fortune having lost their previous 5 games. They duly achieved their first win in 5 matches but it was not without a few heart-stopping moments along the way. CIYMS won the toss and decided to bat first on what looked like a pretty good batting pitch. Opening bowlers Robert McClean and Eddie Hunter bowled well in the first few overs and Hunter was unlucky not to pick up an early wicket when Alexander dropped a slip catch off his bowling. Steven McDonald replaced Hunter and he achieved the first breakthrough when Alexander made up for his earlier miss and took a good catch at mid wicket. Ian Hill had replaced McClean and although generating good speed through the air he tended to bowl short of a length and the CI batsmen found scoring runs of him too easy. He was soon replaced by his brother Greg and he found the right line and length on this pitch. He would go on to bowl his ten overs straight through and pick up 2 wickets for only 21 runs and would have had a third wicket but for a dropped catch behind the wicket by Griebenouw who has taken over wicket keeping duties from skipper Trevor Dempsey. Griebenouw's debut behind the wickets was, apart from that dropped catch, pretty impressive. Gareth Gaw had by this stage replaced McDonald and he too slowed the scoring rate as CI slumped from 90 for 1 at the drinks break to 167 all out. Gaw picked up the wicket of Tate for the second time this season and only conceded 30 runs in his ten over spell. Steven McDonald replaced Greg Hill when he had finished his ten over spell and he went on to take two more wickets to finish with figures of 4 for 43. Robert McClean finished off the innings when skipper Dempsey caught the last man at mid wicket. Chasing 168 for victory Larne got off to a solid start before Aiston called for a quick single and was run out for 8. Griebenouw joined Alexander at the crease with the latter starting to show some of the form he was consistently showing two years ago. Griebenouw started off as if he had a train to catch as he creamed boundaries to all parts of the ground (being particularly severe on Hughes). However when he had reached 29 he was caught behind of the impressive Barnes and this precipitated a minor batting collapse as Larne slumped from 63 for 1 to 65 for 5. Ian Hill was LBW first ball for zero (his third in a row) and Dempsey was caught at point soon after for 1. Graeme Leitch was called through for a quick single but was slow getting away from the crease and he became the second run out victim of the innings. CI now had their tails up and it would take a fighting effort for the lower order to see Larne home. Greg Hill joined Alexander at the crease and immediately took to the bowling displaying a fantastic array of shots. Both batsmen picked up easy singles as they manoeuvred the bowling all round the wicket and Hill struck the odd boundary that meant the required run rate never got out of hand. After scoring 31 Hill was caught at point and Larne were at another crises point in the match with the score on 124 and 44 runs needed. This brought Gareth Gaw to the wicket and as he himself has stated, he has been working on his batting this season and he now had the opportunity to see if all the hard work would pay off. He added 14 runs with Alexander before the latter ran out of steam and was out for a fine 46. Robert McClean now strode purposefully to the middle, determined that there would be no further loss of wickets. Needing 30 runs to win this pair batted with unusual simplicity as they showed cool heads. With the required run rate around 3 to 4 runs per over they knew that they didn't have to smash the ball to the boundary every over and so instead they frustrated the fielders as they picked up sensible singles. Slowly but surely they brought the required number of runs down and apart from one hairy moment when McClean called for a tight single there were few alarms. Gaw finally saw Larne home in the 49 th over as he square cut Hughes for 4 second ball and with 2 runs needed for victory he drove the same bowler back over his head for another 4 that won the match. Gaw finished 28 not out while McClean was 10 not out and Larne had won by 3 wickets with 9 balls to spare. Larne's skipper Trevor Dempsey was quoted after the match saying that he was relieved to have finally won an away match in Section 2 (the Firsts last away win was in 2002 in Section 3) and he was looking forward to taking on Cooke Collegians on Saturday at Shaw's Bridge in Belfast. Scorecard:- |
