On a rather miserable Thursday evening CSNI IV hosted Lisburn III, in a rearranged T20 fixture. Skipper C.McCreedy won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Lisburn started strongly with an opening stand of 59 off the first 7 overs. This was then broken by the impressive A.Bhari who took the wicket of both opening batsmen within three deliveries courtesy of good catches from the skipper C.McCreedy and vice skipper R.Morrow. CSNIs bowling and fielding from this point on were outstanding with J.Fisher and A.Bhari bowling excellently in tandem throughout the middle overs.
E.Wilson was also impressive with the ball picking up two key wickets, caught by D.Sproule and R.Morrow again. Sproule was soon back in the action with a sharp throw to allow wicket-keeper RJ.Copeland to take the bails and run out the Lisburn batsman. A final wicket for C.Elliot of the last ball of the innings meant Lisburn finished on 131-7.
Feeling hopeful after an excellent showing in the field CSNI opened with G.Lutton and D.Sproule. The pair put on a great partnership of 72 (75) before Lutton fell for 27 in the 12th over. Sadly CSNI weren’t able to push on from this point, with the wicket of T.Dalzell falling for 19,
This left RJ.Copeland and Sproule with 24 required off 7 balls. With Copeland at the crease the CSNI team knew there was chance but unfortunately it wasn’t to be on the night and the CSNI side came up short by 17 runs. A tough one to take for the team.
Player of the match goes to Aayush Bhari for an outstanding bowling performance of 3-18 (4). Well done Aayush! The 4th XI can now look forward to an Intermediate Cup tie against our 3rd XI this Saturday.
CSNICC 