On a cold, windy Thursday evening CSNI 1XI travelled to middle road, to take on Carrick 1XI in the last of the T20 cup matches. Carrick won the toss and chose to bat first.
M.Foster & C.Archibald opened the bowling for CSNI and the pair looked to settle well, restricting the Carrick batters early on. CSNI Captain, Stuart Thompson, changed the bowling attack regularly with O.Dyer, H.Dyer and J.Neill all bowling in the power play.
The first few wickets fell in quick succession with C.Archibald (1-34) removing Egan (14) & H.Dyer removing Haasbroek (13). A short partnership between Haggan & Gordon looked threatening until O.Dyer (1/20) removed Haggan (37) after a good catch from brother Harry Dyer.
The introduction of J.West into the attack saw two more Carrick batters removed. Some good glove work by Marko Bates to stump Gilomour (15) and H.Dyer taking another catch at midwicket to remove Gordon for 17.
Continuing his good form from the weekend, H.Dyer picked up another wicket This time of CJ V.D.Walt (32) after more good glove work by Bates. With the score at 157-6, Sharma was run out in the last over by Bates, to leave CSNI 158 to win.
In reply, opening the batting for CSNI was J.Neill and H.Dyer. Carrick opened with the off-spin of professional Haasbroek, who looked difficult to get away at the early stages. This forced Dyer to come down the wicket to create something, but the turning ball bowled him without scoring. The experienced M.Ellison was at three and joined Neill at the crease.
The pair looked to settle in well against the new ball, pushing it into the gaps for singles, and also a large 6 over midwicket from Neill. A pace off delivery from R.Hood, brought Ellison down the wicket looking to follow Neill’s aggression, but it didn’t pay off and he was caught on the midwicket boundary. This brought Skipper, Stuart Thompson to the crease.
In typical North-West style, Thompson started with a bang, charging down the wicket a whacking his first ball over mid-off for 4. Despite a good start, his innings was to be short lived, falling to another catch at midwicket for 8. In at 5 was Paddy Beverland.
The pair started to rebuild the CSNI innings, taking every opportunity there was for quick singles, and dispatching the bad balls, including a straight 6 from Beverland. With the score 56-4, Beverland fell for 20, after a straight ball from Shetty sneaked through his defences. This brought CSNI’s new West-Indian professional C.Archibald (Kez) to the wicket.
In true Caribbean fashion, Kez likes to give himself room at the crease. This was evident on the 3rd ball when he cleared the front leg and whacked V.D.Walt for a huge straight 6. The 10th over saw the introduction of Prince Sharma to the Carrick bowling attack, a player who had trained with CSN during the winter. Neill & Archibald welcomed him into the attack taking his first over for 16, including a 6 for Neill over square leg.
After a flourish of a few more boundaries, a change in the bowling attack brought spinner Armstrong on to make an instant impact with Archibald holing out to long on for 18. J.West was in a 7. It appeared that Jordy Neill was becoming the mainstay of the CSNI innings, bringing up his 50 (from 27 balls) with back-to-back 6s off V.D.Walt.
West and Neill continued to bat smartly, taking singles where they good and dispatching anything short of a length. With 1 run needed to win in the 18th over, James West (17*) hit the winning runs through cover to see CSNI home by 5 wickets.
Congratulations to Jordan Neill, who finished on 84* from 48 balls including 7×4’s and 5×6’s.
The 1st XI are in league action again with back to back games on Saturday and Sunday against Waringstown and Instonians at Stormont!
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