Scorecard

Merrion 2 v North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 1st XI on Sun 26 Apr 2015 at 12.30
North Kildare Cricket Club Lost By 32 Runs (4/25pts)

Match report The 1sts began their season proper with a disappointing defeat away to Merrion yesterday. This was a very winnable match for Kildare and would have been a great way to kickstart their season but unfortunately several errors throughout the match eventually led to defeat for the Kildare men.

NK won the toss and put the oppo in to bat. The pitch was by no means a belter but it did play a touch better than was anticipated. Unfortunately for the 1sts the innings began not in a manner that they were hoping for with an exorbitant number of wides being bowled early doors which allowed the oppo to get off to a far better start than they otherwise would have done. Lewis top scored for Merrion, having played particularly well against the NK spinners, Manny Singh and Paul Ryan, although he rode his luck a little early on and was dropped at one point, albeit much later on during his innings. Oppo no.4 Bester also played well against the NK spinners in making 47. For NK Louis Hofmeyr was the pick of the bowlers. He bowled an excellent spell towards the end of the Merrion innings and helped himself to a well deserved 3-for. Thanks to good spells from Hofmeyr and Clint Auret late on, NK did well to restrict Merrion to a total of 278. Nontheless this was a total significantly bigger than what Merrion should have gotten had Kildare not conceded so many extras, an inexcusable 50 extras were conceded. Also the 1sts didn't have a good day fielding-wise, they weren't awful but they certainly were not good either and hence several runs were conceded in the field that simply should not have been.

In reply the 1sts got off to an excellent start with an opening stand between Neavyn and Manny Singh of exactly 100 at which point Manny departed for a well made 50. Before Manny's dismissal the rain arrived and play was halted with the score on 92-0 off 23 overs. This meant NK were comfortably ahead on the D/L. After an extended delay the 1st's innings was reduced to 45 overs with a revised target of 254 to win. This left NK needing 162 to win off 132 balls and with all their wickets still intact. So it was all to play for with NK perhaps the marginal favourites with all those wickets in hand. Manny departed soon after the rain break and Vorster joined a settled Neavyn at the crease and the pair set about starting up a new partnership nicely. However two quick and inexcusable run outs soon knocked the wind out of the 1sts sails. The run outs gifted the wickets of first Neavyn, and then Vorster to the oppo and when Ul-Haq soon followed lbw and Mathew Auret was soon clean bowled NK were left reeling on 134-5. Two more quick wickets followed to leave the Kildare innings in tatters and with little hope now of victory. Paul Ryan wasn't about to give it up so easily though. He blasted his way to a 36 ball 59 and remarkably got his side back in with a shout of an unlikely win in the process. With 4 overs remaining NK needed another 34 runs to win and with the way Ryan was batting it looked like the 1sts had a chance. Unfortunately it wasn't to be as Ryan skyed one going for a big hit over deep mid wicket and was caught by the keeper and the last Kildare wicket fell the very next ball to bring the game to a close.

This was an opportunity missed by NK. It's highly unlikely the 1sts will have such a poor start with the ball again this season and two poor run outs hurt their run chase badly.

The 1sts will be determined to bounce back from this disappointing performance and result in their next encounter away to Leinster.

Merrion 2 Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 44w 1b 4lb 
for 8 wickets
50
278 (50.0 overs)		     
M. Lewis ct  P. Ryan b M. Singh 78
J. Quinlan ct  C. Auret b P. Ryan 12
C. O'Donoghue b  C. Auret 2
L. Bester b  W. Ali 47
C. Allwright b  L. Hofmeyr 44
S. Khanna b  C. Auret 27
N. Nagar ct  I. Ul-Haq b L. Hofmeyr 8
R. Ensor ct  & bowled L. Hofmeyr 1
A. O'Brien Not Out  7
N. Sharma Not Out  2
R. Bridge  

North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Wasif Ali9.0046146.005.11
Louis Hofmeyr9.0142314.004.67
Clint Auret10.0248224.004.80
Paul Ryan10.0156156.005.60
Manjeet Singh10.0161161.006.10
Neil Vorster2.002000.0010.00

North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 21w 5b 7lb 
for 10 wickets
34
221
(41.3 overs)		    
Robert Neavyn Run out  43 83 5 51.81
Manjeet Singh ct  Unknown b N. Sharma 50 70 7 71.43
Neil Vorster Run out  12 18 2 66.67
Imran ul-Haq lbw  b N. Sharma 3 7 42.86 1
Mathew Auret b  N. Sharma 1 7 14.29
Ian Walshe Run out  1 4 25.00
Paul Ryan ct  C. Allwright b R. Bridge 59 36 10 1 163.89 1
Wasif Ali ct  Unknown b N. Sharma 0 2 0
Louis Hofmeyr ct  S. Khanna b A. O'Brien 8 6 2 133.33 1
Sean Dalton Not Out  10 16 1 62.50
Clint Auret b  R. Bridge 0 1 0 1

Merrion 2 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
R. Ensor7.022000.002.86
R. Bridge8.3037218.504.35
S. Khanna6.004500.007.50
L. Bester9.004300.004.78
N. Sharma9.003448.503.78
A. O'Brien2.0018118.009.00
M. Lewis1.001200.0012.00

  • Umpire :
    C. Colleran & J. Norton
  • Scorer :
    Naomi Scott-Hayward