Under-strength Ballymena suffer heavy defeat at CIYMS

Due to a combination of injuries and unavailabilities, no less than NINE of Ballymena’s 15-man senior squad were absent on Saturday, an almost unbelievable situation which left the club with no option but to throw in a number of inexperienced young players.

Ballymena captain Simon McDowell chose to bat first and his team were quickly in trouble at 14 for 3, with their best batsman James Kennedy out for 5.

At this point there was a real danger of a complete Ballymena capitulation for a very low score. However a determined partnership between Steve Lazars and William Montgomery put on 46 in 18 overs.

Montgomery, who normally likes to attack, was not at his most fluent but he put his head down and battled hard before he was caught behind for 20.

Lazars continued to bat extremely well, mixing sound defence with well-placed drives and pulls.

Michael Glass helped Lazars add 27 for the 6th wicket but, once Glass was out, Lazars realised he had to go for his shots and eventually perished bravely, caught on the mid-wicket boundary for 64 (made off 96 balls).

His fine innings contained a six and 7 fours and meant that he had top-scored for his team in all four games so far.

The CIYMS bowlers then encountered unexpected resistance from the Ballymena tail as Neil Fullerton (13) and Johnny McClelland (9) batted sensibly to add 24 for the 9th wicket.

Ballymena’s innings eventually closed on 122 – a modest total but higher than had seemed likely at 14 for 3.

Realistically a target of 123 was unlikely to cause too many problems for the home team’s strong top-order batting, and so it proved.

Despite Michael Glass bowling a fine 8-over spell for only 20 runs, CI’s in-form opening batsmen, Ireland prospect Chris Dougherty and South-African professional Rassie van der Dussen, scored freely against Ballymena’s other main bowlers.

The only glimmer of encouragement for the Eaton Park side came towards the end of the game when two promising young players were given a chance to bowl in tandem.

Seam bowler Johnny McClelland picked up a very notable scalp for his first wicket at senior level when he had Dougherty (52) caught behind by Neil Fullerton, and teenage leg-spinner Ethan Archer bowled very intelligently against two top-class batsmen going for their shots, conceding only 16 runs in 4 overs.

However their efforts only delayed the inevitable and CIYMS coasted to a 9-wicket win in the 23rd over.

Ballymena return to cup action on Saturday (12 noon) when they host Lurgan in the second round of the Ulster Bank Senior Cup.

Lurgan were relegated from the Premier League last summer , so it is fair to suggest that a full-strength Ballymena line-up would fancy their chances of beating them.

However several of the home team’s top players will still be missing, and, if Ballymena are to progress in the cup, it will require a much improved batting display from those who do play.