Tough start for Lisburn CC as they suffer defeat in the Park

Lisburn faced a stiff opening to their new Premier season when they met Waringstown in the Park last Saturday and after a good effort lost by 44 runs.
Action between Lisburn XI First and Waringstown US1816-407PM Pic by Paul MurphyAction between Lisburn XI First and Waringstown US1816-407PM Pic by Paul Murphy
Action between Lisburn XI First and Waringstown US1816-407PM Pic by Paul Murphy

The visitors decided to bat first on a good early season wicket with rain in the air and Lisburn quickly took a wicket when Steven Lazars, who opened the bowling with his left arm spin, clean bowled Hall with the score at 16.

McCollum and Dennison steadied the Waringstown ship with a stand of 76 in 21 overs, before Dennison was lbw to Richard McConkey for a useful 34 and McConkey struck again in the 32nd over when he had the dangerous Lee Nelson caught by Richard Simpson for 15 with the score on 121 in the 32nd over.

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Lisburn’s best bowler on the day kept his team in the game with the precious wicket of James McCollum for 52 in the same over, but this was the last wicket Lisburn could claim for some time as Waringstown professional Pienar and ex Lisburn all-rounder Greg Thompson added a vital 82 for the 5th wicket with the Lisburn attack unable to break the stand in the 11 overs the pair were at the crease.

However, in the 43rd over Davey Simpson took his first wicket of the season when he had Pienar caught behind the wicket by new keeper Simon Olphert for a quick fire 48 off just 38 balls.

Pienar was replaced by Dawson who supported Thompson in a valuable stand of 47 in only 5 overs before he was superbly stumped by Olphert off the bowling of spinner Carl Williams.

Thompson was next to go, caught by new Lisburn skipper Adam Berry off the bowling of brother Mark for a punishing 58 scored of just 46 deliveries.

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Thompson was dismissed in the last over leaving Waringstown on the more than useful total of 266 for 7 in their 50 overs and giving the home side a more than difficult task to grab the points.

The Lisburn bowling was far from inadequate apart from during the stand between Thompson and Pienar with Richard McConkey leading the way with 3 for 40 in his 10 overs.

Davey Simpson bowled the only maidens of the game with figures of 1 for 44 in his 10 overs. Steven Lazars took 1 for 52 with his left arm spin while Lisburn pro Cody Chetty had 0 for 58.

The Lisburn bowling was completed by Carl Williams with 1 for 32 and Mark Berry, 1 for 34.

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Lisburn needed a good start but they lost Richard Simpson in the 2nd over, caught by Thompson off Pienar and worse was to follow when brother David was caught by Johnny Bushe for a ‘duck’ leaving Lisburn 15 for 2 after 5 overs.

The Lisburn innings was then held together by Robert Rankin who proceeded to bat for 33 overs to score 79 being supported by firstly professional Chetty; the pair put on 98 in 24 overs to keep Lisburn in with a chance but the overs were ticking by and when the partnership was broken in the 29th over with Chetty out for a sound 46, caught by Bushe off Kyle McCallan but he had shown his great potential during his time at the wicket.

He struck five boundaries during his 23 overs and gave great support to Rankin at a crucial time of the innings.

With 20 overs left, Lisburn still required a massive 140 and the task got harder when Rankin was also out for his top score of 79.

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His innings included six fours and two sixes in the 33 overs at the crease.

He was dismissed in the 34th over but Stephen Lazars was not to be denied. The ex- Ballymena player scored a very useful 44 but when he was out in the 43rd over, Lisburn were still well short of the target at 196 for 6.

Lazars was extremely positive in his short time at the wicket hitting six boundaries and two sixes.

The Lisburn tail end batsmen could only manage another 26 runs in the remaining 7 overs losing 4 wickets in the process and finishing their innings with 222 all out, 44 runs short of the Waringstown tally.

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Credit must be paid to Robert Rankin, Cody Chetty and Stephen Lazars who tested the Waringstown attack with three good innings.

The match was kindly sponsored by Lisburn stalwart Trevor McKeown.

This week, Lisburn face another hard fixture when they travel to Dublin to play top side Pembroke in the first round of the Irish Cup.