Scorecard

Merrion 2 v North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 1st XI on Sun 14 Jun 2015 at 13.00
North Kildare Cricket Club Lost By 7 Wickets

Match report A day after beating a strong Pembroke outfit, the firsts were on the road again to play Merrion; a side they had narrowly lost to in the first game of the season. Confident from their victory the day before and seeking revenge as well as another semi-final, NK had all 11 players at the ground well before meet time and they looked ready to go.

Rob won the toss once again and elected to bat on a similar looking wicket to the one the firsts had played on, on the opening day of the season. Oppo openers, Ensor & Kennedy looked to be hitting their areas consistently and things didn't look easy in the middle. Manny fell early, but PR and Rob steadied the ship to bring NK up to 40-1 from 9 - an excellent start granted how well the opposition were bowling. Rob's wicket came from a shot completely out of character and wickets then began to tumble. PR tickled one straight to the keeper, Imran departed for single figures and Dollars decided to run TS out for single figures also. 40-1 turned into 88-6 and although there were plenty overs left to bat and NK obviously batted way down the order; nobody could capitilise. Matt Auret topped scored with a cracking 29 and was the only NK batsman to take the attack to to the opposition. Asides that; NK had nothing to get excited about and were bowled out for an abysmal 141.

Credit must go to the opposition who put the ball in the right areas consistently, but the NK dismissals didn't have much to do with the bowling. 8 out of the 10 NK dismissals were self inflicted and similarly to their fielding performance the day before in Pembroke; they did not make life easy on themselves, particularly with 3 very poor run-outs.

After a poor display with the bat, NK took to the field in search of early wickets against a strong batting lineup. South African opener R. Smith had opened the batting for Merrion 1's a week prior to the game and had scored a century, so NK were fully aware of what they were up against. Loui - fresh off a five-for the day before was targeted by Smith who seemed to enjoy the pace. Wazzle bowled a terrific opening spell at the other end, but couldn't find the breakthrough. Clint got the first wicket in his first over and Matt Auret combined with Manny to run out the dangerous Smith who went for 45(43). At 59-2, NK had a glimmer of hope remaining but knew they would need an over where two or three wickets fell to give themselves a chance. That over never came and NK could only get one more wicket before Merrion knocked off their total with ease - not before Dollars made his first team bowling debut and would've had his first scalp too if he was allowed to set his own field. No one can really blame Bob though, as there wasn't much expectancy of Dollars creating an actual chance. Lewis (who had hit two huge sixes the previous over), decided enough was enough and sent Dollars' third ball into the trees which concluded events - Merrion winning by 7 wickets and booking their place in the semi-finals of the Senior 2 Cup.

Although NK were far from their best (particularly with the bat), Merrion were deserved winners and set the standard as to what one can expect in division 2; particularly with their standard in the field.

Next up for NK is a triple header against Wexford in the Midland Cup on Saturday, Clontarf in the league on Sunday and Clontarf once again in the Tillian Cup semi-final on Monday in what could be a very important weekend for the club this season.

NV

North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 20w 2lb 
for 10 wickets
24
141
(37.0 overs)		    
Robert Neavyn b H. Kennedy 17 44 33 2 51.52
Manjeet Singh ct behind M. Lewis, bowled H. Kennedy 4 15 8 1 50.0 1
Paul Ryan ct behind M. Lewis, bowled S. Morrissey 21 51 26 4 80.77
Imran ul-Haq b D. Quinlan 6 25 20 30.0
Tom Satchwell run out J. Blakeney/M.Lewis 5 41 22 1 22.73
Sean Dalton run out D. Quinlan/M. Lewis 10 46 27 1 37.04
Mathew Auret ct R. Smith, bowled D. Polder 29 19 20 5 1 145.00 1
Neil Vorster b N. Ngar 14 29 27 1 51.85
Louis Hofmeyr b N. Ngar 5 14 8 1 62.50
Clint Auret Not Out  3 11 7 42.86
Wasif Ali run out J. Blakeney/M. Lewis 3 8 2 150.0

Merrion 2 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
R. Ensor5.002500.005.00
H. Kennedy6.011427.002.33
S. Morrissey6.0129129.004.83
D. Quinlan7.0218118.002.57
D. Polder8.013400.004.25
N. Ngar6.011929.503.17

Merrion 2 Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
6w 4lb 
for 3 wickets
10
146 (26.3 overs)		     
D. Polder b C. Auret 6 32 10 1 60.0
R. Smith run out M. Auret/M. Singh 45 51 43 10 104.65
N. Brown b M. Singh 18 41 23 4 78.26
J. Blakeney Not Out  28 63 35 5 80.0
M. Lewis (C)(+) Not Out  39 47 33 2 3 118.18
H. Kennedy  
R. Ensor  
N. Ngar  
S. Morrissey  
J. Short  
D. Quinlan  

North Kildare Cricket Club Men's 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Louis Hofmeyr4.002900.007.25
Wasif Ali7.011700.002.43
Clint Auret5.0030130.006.00
Manjeet Singh4.0019119.004.75
Paul Ryan2.001000.005.00
Mathew Auret3.002500.008.33
Sean Dalton0.30800.0016.00