Thirds suffer heavy league defeat to Lurgan

A young and inexperienced side took to the field for this NCU Division 3 Section III league match led by skipper Esler Burke.

Winning the toss Burke had no hesitation in putting his young charges in to bat.

Kristian Humphrys and Neil Campbell were the openers, but the Lurgan bowlers found a very accurate line and length and runs were hard to come by.

With the score on just four after four overs, Campbell was the first to go when Harrison clean bowled him. Derek McKinley came in at three and he set about moving the run rate on and building a solid base with Humphrys. This pair put on a partnership of 22 runs before Humphrys was bowled by Liddle for 10.

Burke was in at four giving Larne a very experienced partnership at the crease, however this pairing didn’t last long when McKinley was unlucky to be caught off a ball that just popped up at a perfect height to the Lurgan fielder at square leg.

John Hood was the number five batsman and he too was unlucky when he chopped a ball that was high and wide on to the base of his stumps without getting off the mark.

With a score of just 27 for four, the home side knew they were in trouble. Of the remaining Larne batsmen of Aaron McKinley; Michael Wilson; Joseph McClure; Jithin Kuriakose; Andrew Beatty and Michael Humphrys, only Kuriakose showed any resistance hitting two excellent twos before he was caught off the bowling of Crozier. The Larne innings ended in the 23rd over with just 47 runs on the board leaving the visitors a relatively easy chase.

Larne’s opening bowlers Jithin Kuraikose and Aaron McKinley set about making things as difficult as possible for the Lurgan visitors. McKinley was particularly impressive when he bowled the Lurgan opener, Crozier, for a duck in his first over. He repeated this achievement in his fourth over when he clean bowled Hamilton for just four.

Lurgan’s Harrison was in good form and he was regularly finding the boundary. When Larne brought on the young spinner Andrew Beatty, only 10 runs were needed for a Lurgan victory. Unfortunately, it was not to be Beatty’s day and Harrison hit both his first two balls to the boundary for two sixes. This left Lurgan the easy winners by eight wickets with 27 overs to spare.

The match ball was very kindly sponsored by Owen Donnelly Butchers.

Next fixture: On Saturday the Thirds are due to entertain Armagh III at Sandy Bay.