Cricketers’ wait for first victory continues

BALLYMENA are still searching for their first win in 50-over cricket this season after falling to a 59 win defeat in a high-scoring encounter with North Down at Eaton Park on Saturday.

North Down won the toss and wisely chose to bat in glorious sunshine on an easy-paced wicket and with the outfield lightning quick. It quickly became clear that the Ballymena attack would struggle against the prolific North Down top-order batting.

Michael Glass did remove the dangerous Neil Russell with the score on 27, but that then set the scene for a huge partnership between Andrew Sutherland and Ryan Haire, which put on 233 runs in 39 overs.

Haire went on to finish on 156. Some of his strokeplay was outstanding, although he did give 3 chances during the second half of his innings. At the other end, Andrew Sutherland proved the perfect foil, batting in a more restrained fashion to reach 84. The visitors eventually closed on 320 for 3.

Ballymena’s bowlers struggled to show any real penetration in perfect batting conditions, although Michael Glass’s 2 for 47 was a decent effort in the circumstances and young Fergus Taylor was unlucky not to pick up a wicket in his 8 overs.

Ballymena’s chances of chasing 321 were always going to be remote and became even less when Steve Lazars and David Kennedy were both out with only 10 on the board.

However, to their credit, the Eaton Park men did not roll over and battled gamely to end up with a total of 261.

The innings was dominated by a superb innings from the in-form Kaushik Aphale who never looked in any difficulty as he compiled an innings of 126, full of elegant shots all round the wicket.

He hit 13 four and 2 sixes and received good support from Robert McKinley who scored 47 and is beginning to look a genuine batting prospect. William Montgomery also weighed in with a stylish 32 which contained 6 fours.

Despite their best efforts, Ballymena’s batsmen were never going to really threated North Down’s 321 but certainly their score of 261 should surely give the players encouragement that they should be able to score enough runs to beat the weaker sides in the Premier League.

Ballymena have no game this week-end but should travel to Lisburn on June 9th with reasonable optimism that their batting strength can set them up for a first league win of the season.

More encouraging for the local side has been their form in the Twenty 20 competition which is played on midweek dates.

On Thursday evening they won their second game at home to Carrick, having previously beaten Lisburn.

Carrick reached 138 for 5 in their 20 overs but with Kaushik Aphale hitting 66 and David Kennedy adding 34, the home team coasted to a 6-wicket win with 3 balls to spare. This win almost certainly ensures Ballymena a place in the semi-finals.

Related topics: