Agonising defeat for Second XI cricketers

Ballymena Seconds suffered an agonising four runs defeat to Lurgan at Eaton Park on Saturday.
Cricket.Cricket.
Cricket.

In only Ballymena’s second league match of a weather-affected season, Lurgan won the toss and decided to bat, posting 135 over 40 overs.

Matthew Purse had given Ballymena a superb start, dismissing three of Lurgan’s top four batsmen, en route to figures of three wickets for 15 runs, while he received good back-up from Matthew Bell, Richard McNeill and A Craig.

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The champagne moment of the game came from Matthew Purse yet again when he ran out Lurgan captain Andrew Bingham by kicking the ball with his left foot hitting the stumps direct!

David Montgomery (25) and Stephen Colgan (29) gave Ballymena a strong start with a partnership of 50 but the next 3 batsmen failed to trouble the scorers making only 6 runs.

The Ballymena batsmen found themselves now under pressure, with the run rate now slowing, and wickets tumbling but Peter Gregg, making a welcome return, hit a quick fire 23 and along with James Russell (16) took Ballymena close to the finish line.

However, after at one stage only needing 30 runs off 60 balls with 5 wickets in hand, Ballymena could not finish the match off, failing to reach 135 – losing only by 4 runs.

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Describing the defeat as “a bitter pill to swallow”, Second XI captain Stephen Colgan said: “It’s important that the team learns from this and I’m sure if we move on and keep playing with the enthusiasm and commitment as we did on Saturday, a win will come soon.”