Season ends with a whimper for Lisburn

Lisburn opened with Craig Ervine and Richard Simpson and the pair added 47 for the first wicket in just 12 overs with Ervine striking six superb boundaries in the process. However he spooned the ball to mid-wicket and was out for a cameo innings of 30 runs

They began to tinker with their batting order and when they lost three quick wickets, tumbling to 52-4, they never recovered, losing wickets at regular intervals as they completely lost their way.

It took a brisk 40 from Nathan Waller, supported by Robert Rankin at number nine, to rescue the Lisburn innings. The pair added 27 with Waller striking three huge sixes and three more boundaries before he once again holed out to Ley in the deep off the bowling of Carson.

Even after the stand of 27 for the ninth wicket with Robert Rankin, Lisburn still had reached only 114 for 9 and it took another small partnership of 24 between Rankin and Richard McConkey to boost the final tally to 138 all out in 37 overs.

Rankin was last out for 20 and apart from Waller’s 40 and 30 from Craig Ervine, there were no other contributions.

It was a very poor batting performance by a Lisburn team which should have centred on setting their opponents a large target to chase on a good wicket and fast outfield.

North Down, facing just 139 to win and keep themselves in with a chance of sharing the Premier League title, began by losing Johnny Terrett in the sixth over, caught by Richard Simpson off the bowling of his brother, David, but the prolific Nick Larkin and Alistair Shields settled North Down nerves with a stand of 70 for the second wicket.

Lisburn captain, Davey Simpson tried a number of bowlers but did not turn to Darryl Brown who had taken 13 wickets in his last two outings. When the quick bowler did appear he quickly took the prize wicket of Larkin for 17 caught by Stephen Allen as North Down reached 77-2.

Shields and Ryan Haire continued to score runs without much difficulty before Haire was caught for 27 off the spin of Carl Williams leaving the visitors just 13 runs to win the game.

They gathered the last runs, losing two more wickets in the process as they tried to rush to the winning line. Alistair Shields was fourth out, bowled by Richard Simpson for 65, but the result was inevitable and came in the 33rd over with North Down taking the match by fifth wicket with a lot to spare.

Carl Wiliams took 2-39 while David and Richard Simpson, along with Darryl Brown returned a wicket apiece but never threatened to upset the odds after their well under par innings.