Winning streakcontinues with third win in a row for 4ths

The Ballymena side lost the toss and was asked to bat first on a fine track and openers Sam Glass and Alastair Crease made steady progress before the former ran himself out after contemplating an impossible run, but not before recording a very useful 25.

With John Glass joining Crease, the score continued to accumulate at a good rate with Crease reaching his fifty shortly after the halfway point before falling to a good ball from CSNI’s Smyth Jr.

Crease’s demise brought in Jeff Martin, and his experience showed as he and John Glass piled on the runs, with Glass reaching his fifty before holing out trying to push on, and Martin hitting four sixes on his way to an unbeaten 60 despite being immobilised by a tight hamstring and requiring the services of a runner.

Ballymena’s final tally of 213 – 3 was a good score, but it was clear that Ballymena’s bowling and fielding would have to be at their best to prevent their more experienced opponents from chasing it down.

Ballymena’s young opening bowlers, Jonny Browne and Callum Black did a good job in preventing the experienced CSNI openers from getting away to a flyer and throughout the innings the away side managed to take wickets at important times to keep the flow of runs down to manageable proportions and ensure that both sides were always in the game. In the middle overs, the experience of A Crease and then Martin helped to keep the home side’s batters in check.

With 20 required from the last two overs, John Glass restricted CSNI to 9 runs leaving 11 required from the last.

Jonny Browne handled the pressure superbly well, preventing the home side from scoring the boundary they needed and leaving the Ballymena players celebrating a memorable 2 run win.