Scorecard

North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 2nd XI v Phoenix 3 on Sat 30 Aug 2014 at 12.30pm
North Kildare Cricket Club Lost by 56 runs (2/25 points)

Match report The seconds awaited a visit from the division 6 league leaders, Phoenix. Having being told that there wasn't anything to play for with re-fixes unavailable due to weather, the two's knew that there was nothing to play for but pride.

Dollars lost an important toss and Phoenix, of course, choice to bat first on the mat. Andy took the new ball and pegged the opposition back immediately when he removed oppo opener, Shoh, with an absolute jaffa which flew through nicely to the grateful hands of Jack (who was playing his first game in three months). Some tight bowling from Andy and Happy resulted in the next wicket which was a shot completely out of character from Phoenix' other opener, when he tried to drag a ball from off-stump over mid-wicket, only to see his off-stick cartwheeling to the delight of Happy "The Raging Bull" Singh. Phoenix' no.3 and 4 then began to make NK look rather foolish. At times, it looked as if the seconds had forgotten how to field - leaking runs left, right and center - looking like a pack of monkeys fighting over a banana in the process. Whilst looking like morons for the vast majority of the innings, NK had a successful over from Vossie that changed the complexity of the Phoenix innings completely. Phoenix went from 140-3, to 141-6 and NK were all of a sudden right on top. Tomlison spoiled the party down the order with a quickfire 31, but Phoenix were eventually bowled out for a good, but slightly below par score of 196 A/O.

There are no words for some of the fielding that was exhibited by the seconds that could do justice, but, although NK had bowled their opposition out, the two's were fully aware that they had leaked at least 30 runs in their first innings. Although NK were somewhat disappointed with their first half performance, they were under no impression that chasing 196 was going to be a difficult task (granted a couple of people knuckle down and make a few runs).

Behzad and Dollars opened up and got NK off to a flier, but their flier didn't last anywhere near as long as it should've. Dollars went for single figures when he popped one up to covers, disappointingly as Behzad was in fine form at the other end. Jack joined Behzad with just 14 on the board and when Behzad went looking to go big, Jack and new man in, Vossie, were aware that a stand between the two of them was of vital importance if they were to go on and chase their required target. Jack and Voss shared a stand of 42 which left NK at 74-3, needing a further 122, but the seconds had plenty of time to knock off their target thanks to the start Behzad had got the two's off to. Jack departed and so too did Andy, Barra (who got a howler of a decision) and Matt Chase which turned the innings around completely. NK went from 73-2 and cruising with Vossie going very nicely with Jack, to having to rebuild their innings completely at 102-7 when the tumble had finished. Although NK had lost their middle order, Vossie was still at the crease and was joined by Ger who has dug NK out of precarious positions such as this many a time before. Unfortunately for the seconds, Vossie chose the wrong shot at the wrong time and holed out to long-off for a well-made 43 off as many balls, but was bitterly disappointed that he couldn't go on to finish the job. After the wicket of Vossie had fallen, Ger and Matthew O'Meara took the attack to Phoenix with entertaining knocks of 12 & 16 respectively, but NK eventually succumbed to 140-10 despite some lower order resistance.

Looking back at the result, it was evident that NK's fielding performance was by no means a coincidental factor in the seconds' first defeat in five games. As well as this, the loss of Gilly also played it's part as the seconds were most likely just that one seam-option short of serving Phoenix a big old bowl of trouble. Regardless - with nothing to play for in contrast to Phoenix who had everything to play for, there was by no means any gulf of class between the two teams apart from the lack of hunger that NK showed throughout both innings'.

The seconds now just have one fixture remaining and will hope to finish the season with a victory over Railway Union next weekend. Railway (who are bottom), should be well and truly there for the taking, but the seconds know that they come up against a team, that once again, have everything to play for, so will have to have their guards up to finish the season off well.

NV

Comment from the boundary: This synopsis massively underplays the contribution made by Matthew O'Meara. Matthew was brought on as a change bowler at 3 wickets down with two Phoenix batsmen well set and tonking the bowling around the field. Matthew bowled a very good line and length for four overs which dragged back the run fest to a crawl. It seems that the strangulation of their innings which helped the batsmen to start to take risks, such as the attempted heave for 6 which was well taken by mid on.

JS

Phoenix 3 Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 2w 7b 3lb 
for 10 wickets
15
196 (45.0 overs)		     
S. Shoh ct  behind, J. Fleming, bowled A. Chase 2 4 6 33.33
B. Ovenden b  A. Singh 27 60 44 2 61.36
N. Naik ct  A. Singh, bowled N. Vorster 67 130 93 2 72.04
A. Bamfield lbw  bowled M. Zeb 27 50 36 2 75.00
I. Anders ct  J. Fleming, bowled N. Vorster 7 30 18 38.89
P. Tomlinson* run out  B. MacNiocaill/J. Fleming 0 3 1 0
A. Joseph b  N. Vorster 2 9 7 28.57
G. Morris (c) lbw  bowled, N. Vorster 12 27 17 1 70.59
S. Tomlinson ct  M. Zeb, bowled A. Chase 31 55 26 1 1 119.23
S. Singh ct  G. Horn, bowled M. Zeb 2 15 5 40.0
J. Millor Not Out  4 4 3 133.33

North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Andrew Chase9.0229214.503.22
Neil Vorster9.0243410.754.78
Amardeep Singh9.0029129.003.22
Barra MacNiocaill9.003600.004.00
Muddasir Zeb5.0039219.507.80
Matthew O'Meara4.001000.002.50

North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
5b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
7
140
(34.1 overs)		    
Behzad Majeed ct  & bowled, A. Joseph 24 26 12 1 2 200
Sean Dalton ct  G. Morris, bowled S. Singh 5 7 4 1 125.00
Jack Fleming ct  behind, P. Tomlinson, bowled G. Morris 22 47 41 1 53.66 2 1
Neil Vorster ct  S. Shah, bowled G. Millar 43 69 43 5 1 100
Andrew Chase b  S. Tomlinson 0 4 2 0
Barra MacNiocaill lbw  bowled, G. Morris 0 7 7 0 1
Matthew Chase b  G. Morris 5 6 11 1 45.45
Gerard Horn ct  S. Shah, bowled G. Morris 12 37 27 1 44.44 1
Matthew O'Meara ct  P. Tomlinson, bowled G. Morris 16 20 21 2 76.19
Muddasir Zeb Not Out  1 10 13 7.69 1
Amardeep Singh lbw  bowled, S. Tomlinson 5 8 4 125.00 1

Phoenix 3 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
A. Joseph9.0048148.005.33
S. Singh7.0023123.003.29
S. Tomlinson6.111326.502.11
G. Morris8.003256.404.00
G. Millar4.0117117.004.25