Scorecard

The Hills 2 v North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 1st XI on Sun 28 Jun 2015 at 13.00
North Kildare Cricket Club Won By 4 Runs (20/25pts)

Match report After the elation of beating Clontarf in the Tillian Cup semi-final, NK were back to league business against bottom of the table side, The Hills. The Hills - a side that plagued NK last year - were by no means taken lightly and their position in the table did not result in complacency from NK as they knew they were set to face a good side.

Neavyn lost the toss for the first time in weeks and the opposition decided to have a bowl first. The track looked to have plenty in it for both batsman and bowler, but with short square boundaries and what looked to be a very fast outfield; NK were more than happy to bat first. Rob and Manny got things underway and brought up a stand of 50, although the going rate wasn't quite what NK would've liked it to be. When Neavyn fell for 26(71) with 18 overs already gone, PR and Manny set about picking up the scoring rate and did so to great effect. PR and Manny shared another 50 partnership in exactly ten overs, but when Paulie cracked one down the throat of mid-off and used his bat as a crutch to walk off-field, it was feared that Paulie might have played his part in the contest already with a back strain that was causing him problems. However; as Manny and PR picked up the rate and with plenty of wickets in hand, NK were confident of posting a good total. Matt Auret (who had scored back-to-back 50's the weekend before) unfortunately went for single figures and Tommy departed soon after for 18. When Manny was finally dismissed for 71(87), NK were left with just under 11 overs; the score on 168-5 at that point. Thanks to another brilliant knock from Manny, who anchored the NK innings; Imran, Vossie and Loui could go hard for the last ten because of the platform Manny had set by holding the innings together. Manny's 71 included 10x4's and his innings was perfectly put together as he barely offered a chance and upped his scoring rate quickly when he needed to do so. Vossie and Imran were the two batsman out in the middle after Manny's dismissal, but Imran's stand was short lived when oppo youngster Everard had Immy clean bowled which was a sour pill to swallow at the time as the final ten overs with change bowlers on would've suited Imran down to a tee. He fell for just 10, but when Loui joined Vossie with the score on 189-6 with 7 overs remaining, they set about getting NK up to 250 with a strong finish. The pair found boundaries difficult to come by, but from the minute Vossie and Loui began their partnership, they got on top of their opposition by running aggressively and faced very few dot balls. The partnership wasn't action packed and certainly didn't produce many fireworks, but was rather clever and opportunistic. The pair batted til the final over and finished with a flourish, taking 14 off the last 6 balls; NK reaching 250 in the process thanks to a 61 run stand between the two 21-year-old's although Loui was undeservedly run out on the very last delivery of the innings.

Due to a cracking half-century from Manny and a strong finish from Vossie and Loui, NK had reached 250 which seemed to be above par as the outfield was nowhere near as quick as expected and the track provided assistance to the bowlers when the ball was put in the right areas.

NK took to the field, but had lost PR to injury so Barra Mc was forced into the side to field for 50 overs. The firsts then got off to a surprisingly poor start. Both Loui and Clint couldn't produce opening spells that NK would've liked and The Hills had started very brightly in pursuit of their target. Clint was taken out of the attack after just two overs and it was Wazzie who immediately got the breakthrough when he took a sensational one-handed catch off his own bowling to get rid of oppo skipper, Archer who had already been put down in his innings of 17. This followed the most frustrating spell of the second innings for NK, as both opener, Dongegan and no.3, Kumar (fresh off a 70 for their firsts in division 2) were dropped a couple of times each to the bemusement of Rob and PR who watched from the sidelines. The partnership eventually ended Manny got the best of Donegan and when Clint combined with Wazzie to take a cracking catch (diving forward just to his right to hold onto the catch just centimeters off the ground) which saw the back of Kumar for 18, leaving The Hills on 83-3 and NK right on top. After the loss of two quick wickets, Wazzle and Manny turned the screw and smothered the opposition batsman who could not get after either of the two. Wasif and Manny bowled their ten overs straight through and had put NK in a commanding position to finish off their opponents. With both Manny and Wasif bowled out, Vossie was introduced after drinks and added to the pressure that was applied by Wazzle and Manny. Both no.4, Moore and no.5, Clinton had eaten up a lot of deliveries, but NK didn't have enough runs on the board to really get the required rate up to put serious pressure on the opposition batsman. Even after a very slow start to Moore's and Clinton's partnership, the pair began to press forward and took the attack to the NK bowlers. Loui's pace was targeted, particularly to the short boundaries and NK were in desperate need of a breakthrough. Imran replaced Loui with the ball and got the breakthrough NK had been craving which finally saw the back of Clinton when he holed out to Matt Auret who took the catch with ease at deep mid-wicket. With the partnership broken, NK then saw the back of Moore and the firsts were sure they could boss the game from this point with both set batsman removed with the opposition still needing 89 runs from the last 11 overs. This is where further frustration and and lack off professionalism kicked in, as The Hills edged closer to their target with another couple of dropped catches to add to collection as well as a ghastly amount of extras which could've cost NK dearly. The firsts failed to capitalize on strong positions throughout the entire second innings and The Hills brought it down to the final over, needing just 11 to win from the final over. Mattie Auret bowled the last over of the second innings and once again, he saved NK's bacon going for just 6 and taking a wicket with some excellent variations; NK winning by just 4 runs in the second game in a row that came down to wire, which could've been a very different game if it wasn't for Imran's excellent 4-for that was vital in slowing down the scoring rate as Immy took wickets regularly.

So - after 7 simple dropped catches, 44 extras bowled by the NK attack; PR having circled the boundary 7,396 times as well as Bob's hairline receding back past his ears - NK had finally got the job done and had moved to second in the table, but knew that their performance in the field was simply not good enough if they are to move up a division.

Although NK felt they had dropped 5 points, there were positives to take away in the form of another solid batting performance, a half century from Manny, good spells of bowling from Wazzle, Manny, Immy and Vossie, an excellent fielding display from Barra who did a great job filling the boots of PR and ironically; three quality catches in the midst of what looked to be a very poor fielding drill.

Next up - league leaders Merrion. An already tough opponent will be even tougher with Louis, Matt & Clint Auret away for the weekend so NK will have to be at their very best to topple a side who have lost just one game in the league this year.

NV

North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 11w 2b 4lb 
for 7 wickets
18
250
(50.0 overs)		    
Robert Neavyn ct A. Kavanagh, bowled M. Kumar 26 68 71 3 36.62
Manjeet Singh ct B. Moore, bowled N. Akhtar 71 157 87 10 81.61
Paul Ryan ct K. Everard, bowled M. Kumar 35 41 33 6 106.06
Mathew Auret b W. Archer 6 13 12 1 50.0 1
Tom Satchwell lbw bowled K. Everard 18 30 28 64.29 1
Imran ul-Haq b K. Everard 10 19 7 1 142.86 1
Neil Vorster Not Out  36 55 34 3 105.88
Louis Hofmeyr run out W. Akhtar 29 33 25 4 116.00
Clint Auret Not Out  0 1
Andrew Chase  
Wasif Ali   1

The Hills 2 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
J. Clinton7.022100.003.00
W. Akhtar10.005400.005.40
M. Kumar10.0425212.502.50
N. Akhtar8.0043143.005.37
A. Kavanagh3.002700.009.00
W. Archer6.0034134.005.67
K. Everard6.0039219.506.50

The Hills 2 Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 32w 4b 6lb 
for 9 wickets
44
246 (50.0 overs)		     
W. Archer (*) ct & bowled, W. Ali 17 27 16 3 106.25
M. Donegan ct T. Satchwell, bowled M. Singh 33 65 49 4 67.35
M. Kumar ct C. Auret, bowled W. Ali 18 43 26 4 69.23
B. Moore lbw bowled I. Ul-Haq 32 87 70 4 1 45.71
J. Clinton ct M. Auret, bowled I. Ul-Haq 31 84 64 3 1 48.44
M. Byrne ct I. Ul-Haq, bowled N. Vorster 14 29 23 3 60.87
N. Akhtar lbw bowled I. Ul-haq 25 51 30 1 1 83.33
G. Hynes b I. Ul-haq 2 3 3 66.67
A. Kavanagh lbw bowled I. Ul-haq 6 14 7 1 85.71
W. Akhtar Not Out  23 16 11 2 2 209.09
K. Everard Not Out  1 3 2 50.0

North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Louis Hofmeyr7.004300.006.14
Clint Auret2.002100.0010.50
Wasif Ali10.0233216.503.30
Manjeet Singh10.0121121.002.10
Neil Vorster10.0244144.004.40
Imran ul-Haq8.0054413.506.75
Mathew Auret3.0020120.006.67