The 4th XI were finally able to get their season underway on Saturday with a trip to Bangor on an excellent day for cricket!
The toss was won by new skipper C.McCreedy, who elected to bowl knowing this team have been excellent chasers in recent seasons. However, it was soon evident that this wicket was a batters paradise of which the Bangor batters took full advantage. It was a tough day in the field for CSNI with some early season cobwebs in the bowling department.
This didn’t stop two excellent catches though, taken by T.Dalzell and R.Thomas, to give the away side some hope. This was added to shortly after by E.Wilson with an excellent delivery to clean bowl the Bangor batter. A strong partnership between M.McNaught and M.English however, swung the game hugely in the North Down sides favour, with the latter scoring an excellent century.
A target of 270 for CSNI was going to be tough to chase down but there was some hope if we could get a couple of good partnerships going. Openers T.Dalzell and T.Sharma got off to a brisk start before Dalzell was given out caught behind. That brought the skipper to the crease but after a nasty blow to the head he was bowled by J. Walker.
RJ.Copeland then made his way to the middle and put on a now trademark display of ball striking. Copeland anchored the CSNI innings dispatching the ball to all areas of the field, including some very big sixes. Excellent contributions at the other end by both Sharma and later B.Bingham helped CSNI reach a total of 175 at the end of their innings, unfortunately not enough on the day to take the win.
Player of the match goes to CSNIs wicket-keeper batsman Ryan Copeland with an excellent innings of 73* (62). Well done Ryan!
Special mention also to Tanish Sharma who performed superbly on his senior debut and Ben Bingham on his club debut. Well played lads!
The 4th XI now turn their attention to their next match against Carrickfergus at home next Sunday.
𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗿 𝟮𝗫𝗜: 𝟮𝟲𝟵/𝟯 (𝟯𝟬 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀)
M English 110*, M McNaught 68*, P McMillan 30
𝗖𝗦𝗡𝗜 𝟰𝗫𝗜: 𝟭𝟳𝟱/𝟮 (𝟯𝟬 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀)
RJ Copeland 73*, B Bingham 27*
𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝟵𝟰 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝘀
CSNICC 