Donaghcloney Seconds suffer defeat in the Intermediate Cup

With Ballymena Firsts having no game some players took the opportunity to play for the Seconds.

However, with Ballymena winning the toss and electing to bat these additions made no difference with the bat as Donaghcloney got off to a good start restricting Ballymena to 5-54 after 16 overs.

Brian Lyttle, the pick of the bowlers, opening the bowling with figures of 3-16 in his 8 overs. Using his experience and knowledge of the pitch to lure batsmen into providing some catches for the Donaghcloney side that were successfully taken. He was also backed up by young David Houston who bowled his 4 overs for 14 runs.

The game then settled down with Ballymena’s J.Nicholl knocking some heavy blows to Donaghcloney’s batters in the middle overs. By the time Kyle Weir, Paul Lyttle and Jeff Lyttle had finished their spells of 0-32 (8), 1-33 (5) and 0-24 (2) respectively Ballymena stood at 150-5 after 31 overs. This left Ballymena sitting in a strong position with overs and wickets in hand however the inexperienced bowling attack of Richard Lyttle 2-35 (8) and Conor Woods 2-25 (5) managed to restrict Ballymena to 190-9 in their 40 overs.

A special mention once again for Conor Woods who managed to claim the scalp of a teams highest scoring batter, a very promising start to the season for young Conor.

Donaghcloney knew that the run rate would not be a problem for them but more the matter of batting the allocated 40 overs. However, with M. Purse bowling his 8 overs for 1-8 in the opening spell things were always going to be tough. Donaghcloney lost Scott Armstrong and in form batsmen Stephen Lyttle early on. A marvellous bowling performance from Ballymena never really giving Donaghcloney a chance in chasing down 190. However the team should take heart form this performance, as Ballymena are in the league above.