Carrick score record total ... but still lose out!

After an enforced break of five long weeks due to the wet weather, Carrick returned to action on Saturday at Middle Road, and what a game it turned out to be.

The home side won the toss and batted first, and openers Jamie Holmes and Jordan McClurkin got them off to a steady start with an opening partnership of 47 runs in 12 overs before McClurkin was caught behind for 10.

Mikey Taiaroa then joined his New Zealand compatriot Holmes at the wicket, and the pair continued to score steadily, taking it along to 119 at the 25 over drinks interval without giving much indication of what was to follow.

It was not until the 30th over that they really started to accelerate, and the 200 came up in the 37th over, with Holmes completing a fine hundred off 105 balls. Taiaroa, too, reached his hundred soon afterwards, his ton coming off 116 deliveries.

In the space of only nine overs the pair added another hundred runs. The 300 came up in the 46th over, when Taiaroa hit five sixes in an over off Ballymena skipper Simon McDowell.

Holmes lost his wicket with just a couple of overs remaining. He was eventually caught in the deep for a superb 134, which was scored off 129 balls and contained 17 fours and two sixes. The pair had added 284 in 36 overs - a record partnership for any wicket for Carrick.

Mikey Taiaroa was still there at the end, unbeaten on 176, with the total by this time having reached a record high for Carrick of 347 for 3. His magnificent innings was scored off 148 deliveries, and contained nine fours and no fewer than 14 sixes, with eight of these coming in the space of eleven balls towards the end of the innings.

Carrick took the field confident they were on their way to the victory they needed to kick-start their season, and when the visitors managed only 20 runs off the first eight overs, it did not look good for them.

However, Carrick found the initial breakthrough elusive and openers James Kennedy and Robert McKinley grew in confidence, with Kennedy, in particular, beginning to look in ominous form.

It was not until the 23rd over that skipper Ross Gelderbloem took the wicket of McKinley, by which time the score had passed the hundred mark.

At the 25-over drinks interval, Ballymena were one run ahead of Carrick’s score at the same juncture. Indian pro Aphale and Kennedy looked to be in no trouble, and the pair took the score past the 200 mark in the 33rd over, with Kennedy completing a fine hundred which included 14 fours and three sixes, before he became Gelderbloem’s second victim.

Iain Pakhill then trapped Aphale leg before wicket for 59 to leave two new batsmen at the crease. David Kennedy and Kirkpatrick kept the momentum going, adding another 43 runs, before two more wickets for Parkhill which fell to superb outfield catches, and one for Anthony Martin reduced them to 280 for six.

Lazars and Fisher added another 33 runs, but three run-outs then left the last two batsmen at the wicket. Ballymena now required an improbable 28 runs from the two remaining overs.

Ryan Eagleson conceded 13 off the 49th over, and then Carrick suffered a body blow. The umpires adjudged that Carrick had gone over their allotted time and awarded Ballymena six penalty runs. This left them with a more straightforward nine runs required off Parkhill’s final over.

A single to McDowell off the first ball, Glass then had an almighty swing which saw the ball sail over the long on boundary for six. The two singles they needed came off the next two balls, to see Ballymena home to victory with one wicket and two balls to spare in a remarkable day’s cricket.