Having beaten Midleton in the quarter final and Galway in the semi final County 2 took on Limerick on an overcast day at Farmer’s Cross.

Heavy overnight rainfall meant that the start of the game was delayed from 12 noon to 1p.m. however no overs were lost at this stage.

Limerick captain Kevin Hennessy won the toss and chose to bat first on the artificial wicket. Justin McGurk(2-17) and Hugh O’Brien(0-18) opened the bowling for the Cork side.

Tahir Saqib was first to fall for Limerick bowled by McGurk for 7.

Ninja Srinivisan soon followed when opening batsman Shane Burke called for what looked like an easy single to Nicky Murphy at mid-wicket. However a good stop and a direct hit from Murphy brought Srinivisan’s innings to an end without even facing a delivery.

Limerick now needed a good partnership to steady the ship and they got one; Shane Burke(28) and Hashir Sultan(35) hitting some big shots(including three sixes) on their way to a fifty partnership.

Matt Reed(1-38) had replaced O’Brien at the Pavilion End while leg-spinner Nicky Murphy relieved McGurk at the Road End. The Cork side finally broke up the third wicket partnership when Shane Burke edged behind to Ian Coleman off the bowling off Matt Reed.

Bharath(32) now joined Sultan at the crease and both batsman attempted big shots off the bowling of Ciaran Healy(3-39) and Matt Reed. It was Healy who made the breakthrough when a slog sweep by Sultan was caught by Chris Banon at deep square-leg.

Nicky Murphy returned from the Pavilion end and it took him just two balls to dismiss Asif(0), Brad Morgan taking an excellent catch at short extra-cover.

Limerick were now 114-5 and things got worse for them when big-hitter Bharath was bowled by Healy.

Fassey Ahmed soon followed, caught by County skipper Niall Tynan off McGurk for 8.

The final three Limerick wickets fell quite quickly, John Daly(3) bowled by Healy while Stephen Hackett and Kevin Hennessy both fell to Nicky Murphy for 1 and 2 respectively.

This left Limerick 139 all out in 33 overs, a considerable achievement given the damp conditions.

The weather had held out for almost all of the first innings but just as the teams were about to retake the field a massive shower arrived and after a delay of over an hour to allow the ground to dry somewhat the umpires decided that conditions were playable and that play could continue.

Due to the delay the target had to be revised and scorers Kevin O’Sullivan and Declan Earley calculated that the magic number was now 65 from 20 overs.

Darren Fogarty(4) and Chris Banon(25) opened the batting for County and went for it from the start, Banon hitting a couple of boundaries and with the addition of wides the Cork side were reached 21 before the first wicket fell, Fogarty skying one which was caught by Limerick ‘keeper Shane Burke.

Brad Morgan(8) joined Banon at the crease but their partnership did not last long, the opening batsman bowled by Bharath via a thick inside edge.

Good shots by Morgan and Ian Coleman(13*) aswell as a number of wides brought County to within 12 of the target when Morgan was run out, a sharp throw from mid-wicket bringing his innings to a close.

As it turned out new batsman Matt Reed did not have to face a ball, Coleman hitting one through mid-off for four, four overthrows, a few wides and a final two through the extra-cover region finishing the game off for Cork County 2 and making them the 2012 Munster Junior Cup champions.

A special thanks must go to Harlequins C.C. for providing their ground for the game and to members of Cork County who came up to Farmer’s Cross to support the team.

Tags: Chris Banon, Cork County Cricket Club, Cork Cricket Club, Cricket, cricket in Cork, Munster Cricket Union, Munster Junior Cup