Waringstown back on railsafter seeing off rivals Lurgan

The villagers batted first and lost both openers cheaply, David Dawson being adjudged lbw to Crasborn for a duck and Greg Thompson being caught behind by Chambers off Lecky for 13 leaving the visitors on 39 for 2 wickets.

However the experience of the Waringstown middle order came to the fore with Kyle McCallan, Lee Nelson and Obus Pienaar all making substantial contributions.

Nelson and McCallan had put on 46 for the third wicket when a mid-wicket mix up left the former Irish skipper stranded, run out for 43.

Pienaar joined Nelson and the score had moved on to 122 when Nelson mistimed a sweep shot off Lurgan professional Niranjan Godbole straight into the hands of Peter Haire at square leg.

Jonathan Bushe was next to go, bowled by Godbole attempting a reverse sweep, but Pienaar was patiently building an innings taking singles and two’s while occasionally smashing the occasional bad delivery to the boundary.

Adam Dennison joined him in the middle and contributed 26 runs in a sixth wicket stand of 47 and with Pienaar not out on 64, Waringstown set the Town side 207 runs for victory.

In the field Lurgan had bowled and fielded well with none of the Waringstown batsmen ever being allowed to cut loose and stand in skipper John Guy would not have been too disappointed with the target set for victory.

Niranjan Godbole and Stephen Leckey were the pick of the Lurgan bowlers, Godbole taking 2 wickets for 31 runs off 10 overs and Stephen Leckey 1 for 15 off 6.

Jamie Holmes replaced the honeymooning Stephen Johnston to open the Lurgan innings along with Niranjan Godbole and the Town side got away to a promising start.

Anything loose from Eaglestone and Pienaar was dispatched to the boundary.

However with the score on 47 the introduction of spinner Gary Kidd tempted Godbole into an on drive that was well taken low to his right by the diving Thompson and the Lurgan professional was out for 22. F

our runs later Jamie Holmes, having played some attractive shots, was adjudged caught behind by Bushe off Pienaar for 24.

The Lurgan player clearly didn’t think he hit it as he left the field.

After the departure of Holmes the only Lurgan batsman to seriously challenge the Waringstown bowlers was Stephen Chambers, but he could only watch on helplessly as his colleagues were dispatched at the other end with former Lisburn player Greg Thompson responsible for most of the damage.

Thompson eventually accounted for Chambers, bowling the Lurgan man for 35 and returning the best figures for the visitors, conceding only 24 runs for his 4 wickets in 10 overs.

Gary Kidd took 2 for 21 off 10, the spin duo between them playing a major role in restricting the home side to just 139 for 8 wickets in their 50 overs.

The ball used by Lurgan in the game against Waringstown was kindly sponsored by Billy Boyd.