Cork County 3 made the long trip to Ballyeighan to take on Tippearary 2 on Sunday last. Tippearary won the spin of the coin and had no hesitation in asking County to bat first.
Abdul Younus and Peter Barlow strode out to face the new ball but Barlow was back in the pavilion just two overs later when he was bowled by a ball that kept low. Variable bounce was a feature throughout the game but was dealt with well by County batsmen Younus and Renjarla who succeeded in putting on a sizeable partnership, Renjarla in particular attacking the home side’s bowling. He eventually fell in the thirteenth over when he was caught behind having made 34 out of 58.
Captain Billy Quinn joined Younus at the crease but did not last long as he also nicked through to the ‘keeper, leaving the visitors in a spot of bother at 63-3 from 15.3 overs. Younus was joined by Kevin O’Sullivan and both batsmen played defensively as they attempted to see their side through to drinks. They managed this successfully and County had reached 81-3 at drinks a very credible effort given the team’s recent struggles with the bat. Both batsmen attempted to up the rate after drinks and their cause was helped by a flurry of boundaries, the score progressing to 116 without any further damage in the wickets column.
However, with twelve overs remaining in the innings, the momentum swung back in the hosts’ favour, O’Sullivan and Younus both out in consecutive overs. Sachin Saxena was the next to go and he was soon followed by Muhammad Haroon, caught out of his ground by a sharp throw from fine leg. Talha Kayani dispatched a no-ball over square leg for six and then added another boundary through mid-wicket as the score reached 150. He was bowled shortly afterwards and some good, aggressive running from John Simon, Mort Kelleher and Nazim Rehman helped the score to 163 when the final wicket fell with just five balls remaining in the innings.
Tippearary needed a good start and they got one, Aaron Cawley looking in particularly good touch.Despite economical spells from the opening bowlers, County could not find a wicket and it took a change of ends for Narsa Renjarla to eventually make the breakthrough, Keith Marchbank unable to keep out a straight one.
Bibin joined Cawley but the batsmen could not get above the required rate, a fantastic spell from Sachin Saxena coupled with testing bowling from Kevin O’Sullivan and Nazim Rehman. Despite seeming to be run out twice early in his innings, Bibin continued to take chances to try and achieve the required rate. Some excellent fielding from the visitors helped them to keep control of the game and when Cawley was bowled by Abdul Younus for a well-made 58 the game looked to be up.
So it proved as with four late wickets, two of them run-outs, County managed to close out an impressive seven run victory, the first time in five years a Cork County team has won in Ballyeighan.
