Cricketers hit top spot in Premier League

After restricting the home team to 110 for 5 in their 20 overs, the Eaton Park side must have felt that their strong batting line-up would give them a great chance of another win, but in the event they never really looked like reaching their target and fell 15 runs short.

Lisburn won the toss and batted. After a brisk start their batsmen soon became tied down on the very slow wicket by Ballymena’s accurate spinners. Simon McDowell, Kaushik Aphale and Steve Lazars all bowled excellently ; each of them picked up a wicket and they bowled there 12 combined overs for only 40 runs. Lisburn captained David Simpson top-scored with 29 but took 37 balls to do it. Indeed it was only due to to a quickfire 20 not out from Zimbabwean Nathan Waller that Lisburn finally managed to get over the 100 mark.

In reply, Ballymena started well with James Kennedy hitting a brisk 18 with 3 fours. However once he was caught in the deep off Hennie van de Merwe, the rest of the Ballymena batting found runs at a premium against a good Lisburn attack on a wicket where driving was difficult.

The in-form Aphale was bowled by the impressive Waller and, although David Kennedy and William Montgomery took the score to 50, they struggled to take the rate above four an over.

At this point Lisburn professional Darryl Brown clean bowled Kennedy and then, remarkably, hit the stumps of three other batsmen Gareth Fisher, Robert Kennedy and Robert McKinley to finish with 4 for 13 from his 4 overs. This put the game beyond Ballymena and although, in a late show of defiance, Simon McDowell and Fergus Taylor both hit huge sixes, it was a case of too little, too late and Ballymena finished their 20 overs on 95 for 9. It was a disappointing end to a good run for the Eaton Park men and they will feel that ,even though Lisburn bowled well and the wicket wasn’t ideal for quick scoring, they should, at the very least, have gone much closer to winning the game.

Ballymena quickly bounced back to winning ways with a good win over CSNI at Eaton Park on Saturday.

In a rain –effected game, the home side did well to chase down a victory target of 173 in 42 overs. Young all-rounder Robert McKinley was Ballymena star performer as he followed up his 4 wickets with a vital innings of 64.

CSNI batted first and made an uncertain start . Michael Glass, who had a fine spell of 10 overs for just 18 runs, bowled Charlie Beverland and then Simon McDowell struck a major blow by having his opposing captain, Ireland star Nigel Jones, caught for 10. Indeed Ballymena seemed well on top when 2 further wickets for Kaushik Aphale reduced the Stormont side to 61 for 4.

At this stage a partnership of 96 between CSNI professional Griffin Niewoudt and Wayne Horwood turned things round. With rain having reduced the match to 42 overs it looked like this pair might take CSNI to close to 200. However seam bowler McKinley returned to the attack and bowled with genuine control and accuracy to pick up 4 wickets and restrict CSNI to 171 for 9.

The Duckworth/Lewis calculation meant that Ballymena needed 173 to win, a difficult enough target in 42 oversI against the very useful CSNI seam attack.

However McKinley started off with the bat just as impressively as he had performed with the ball. Assisted first by James Kennedy and then by David Kennedy , he reached 64 and Ballymena were looking in control at 113 for 1.

Then both McKinley and David Kennedy were dismissed at the same score and with their middle-order batting still not at its best, Ballymena fell away to 144 for 6.

The game looked to be in the balance at this stage but, fortunately for the Eaton Park side,the ever-reliable Aphale was still at the crease and he and Steve Lazars steadied the ship and took Ballymena over the line – comfortably enough in the end with nearly two overs to spare.

Ballymena’s win takes them joint-top of the Ulster Bank Premier League, although they have played more games than any of the other contenders.

The Eaton Park side take on another of the joint-leaders CIYMS on Wednesday evening in a 20-over rearranged game (Eaton Park 5.30 p.m.)

Then on Saturday the Eaton Park side travel to North Down for what could be a very interesting encounter on the high-scoring Comber ground.