Larne v Belfast Harlequins - Saturday 4th September 2004 |
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On Saturday 4th September, Larne Second XI, sponsored by Rainey and Gregg, Property and Mortgage Centre, Ballymena, defeated Belfast Harlequins II by 125 runs in League Division 2 Section 2. On winning the toss Belfast Harlequins opted to bowl, clearly unsure about the wicket, however, a strong Larne batting line-up was certain that they could set a good target. Alan McKee and the in-form David Tweed opened the batting for Larne and immediately took the attack to Harlequins. Both players looked in excellent touch and only the slowness of the outfield prevented a series of boundaries from the opening overs. Having scored a fluent 20, McKee was the first to go when Dalzell took an incredible catch off his bowling. Tweed followed shortly afterwards for 19, with another superb catch off his bowling by Dalzell to leave Larne on 49 for 2 after 12 overs. Shah Ali Murad was then joined by Daryl Service and both looked to keep attacking with Murad playing the dominant role. Unfortunately just as he was really getting into his stride he became the third caught and bowled victim when he was dismissed for 24. Ryan Hamill came to the crease in positive mood but two reckless shots later he was back in the pavilion for 2 and Harlequins were right back in the match. At this stage New Zealander Sharwin was in the middle of a lovely spell of swing bowling with only Service looking comfortable. Sharwin had his rewards when he removed King, McKinley and Moore cheaply and at the end of his spell Larne were reeling on 96 for 7 with 20 overs still left to be played. Darren Stanton and Service knew that the run rate was still good and that the main objective was to bat the overs. For the next 10 overs they batted sensibly rotating the strike and averaging 3 runs an over to take Larne up to 130, but significantly all 4 of Harlequins top bowlers had now bowled their allotted overs. With both players well set and Service in particular looking in good form they immediately attacked the change bowling. Service brought up an excellent 50 with a lofted straight drive but unfortunately was caught on the same boundary off his next ball. Stanton was dismissed off a ‘bump ball’ shortly afterwards for 11. Youngsters Hunter and Graham still had 5 overs to bat for the last wicket but they batted intelligently to allow Larne to post an excellent 183. Kenny McKinley and Eddy Hunter were handed the new ball and it was McKinley who made first use of it when he clean bowled one of the openers with his fourth delivery. He followed this with 3 more wickets in his next 3 overs and when Hunter joined in with his first wicket, Harlequins were more or less beaten on 16 for 5 after only 9 overs. Special mention should be given to Ryan Hamill for one of the catches of the season taken off McKinley at mid-off to help remove Harlequins best player. McKinley went on to take another 2 wickets to finish with the magnificent figures of 6 for 26, to end the season as the Seconds top wicket taker. King and Hamill then took a wicket each as Harlequins collapsed, and a simple run-out ended the innings on a miserable total of 58 after only 23 overs. In all a pretty good season for the Seconds with 12 wins from 16 played in the League and a good run in the Cup where they lost in the Final. With only 2 players over 25 on Saturday this side can only get better over the next few years.
Scorecard:- |
