Cricketers enjoy another nail-biting victory

Chasing 203 to win, Ballymena won by 5 wickets off the fifth ball of the last over.

This third victory in fifteen days has essentially turned Ballymena’s season around, for instead of facing a relegation battle in August they can enjoy the much more pleasant prospect of jostling for the mid-table positions.

Waringstown won the toss and chose to bat on a wicket that gave a little bit of help to both the seamers and the spinners.

Michael Glass and Robert McKinley both bowled well and soon had Ballymena on top. McKinley dismissed David Dawson and then Glass had the dangerous Ireland A regular Lee Nelson brilliantly caught by David Kennedy, one-handed low to his left at slip.

With the score on 47, McKinley produced a beauty to bowl Irish international James Hall and when Steve Lazars came into the attack he quickly had the visitors’ professional Glen Addicott caught behind for 18 and when Jamie Matthews went the same way two overs later Waringstown were 80 for 5 and looked likely to be out for less than 150.

At this stage the experienced Kyle McCallen was joined by promising schoolboy Aaron Kennedy and this pair turned things round for the visitors with a fine 75-run partnership. Young Kennedy looked very composed against the experienced Ballymena slow bowlers until Kaushik Aphale eventually had him caught for an excellent 35.

However McCallen took command at this stage and ,with the help of two huge sixes, the former Ireland captain almost single-handedly took 47 runs from the last five overs to lead his side to a competitive final total of 202 for 8 in their 50 overs. McCallen finished unbeaten on 81, while for Ballymena McKinley’s 3 for 49 was just reward for his best bowling of the season.

At the tea interval, the Ballymena batsmen knew that a target of 203 would not be easy against Waringstown four-pronged spin attack.

Their fears looked justified as, after a quick start, the home team’s scoring rate slowed against the spinners and, when Lee Nelson dismissed both McKinley and James Kennedy to leave the score at 51 for 2, the game was clearly in the balance. Ballymena needed a partnership from their two best batsmen David Kennedy and Aphale and, after a quiet period, this pair started to push the ball around for ones and twos.

Aphale was soon looking at his fluent best; indeed there are many who believe he is the best bat in NCU cricket on current form.

Kennedy found things more difficult against the turning ball and actually escaped two difficult chances to the wicket-keeper. However, although he was only able to find the boundary three times, he found the gaps intelligently and he and Aphale took the score to 167 with 7 overs left.

Ballymena looked to be cruising home at this stage, but then McCallen dismissed Kennedy, for 71 off 134 balls, and Andy Kirkpatrick for a duck in the 44th over.

When William Montgomery was caught for 7 with the score on 186, the home team still looked comfortable but Steve Lazars struggled to beat the field early in his innings and suddenly Ballymena found themselves needing 10 off the last over.

Aphale coolly took 3 off the first two balls and then Lazars struck Addicott’s next three balls to the mid-wicket area for 4,2 and 4 to take Ballymena to a well-deserved win with one ball to spare. Aphale finished on 69 not out, another top-class innings which came off just 74 balls with 5 fours.

The Eaton Park side have two opportunities this week to add more wins to their current tally of three. On Thursday evening (5.30 p.m) they travel to Lisburn for a 20-over rearranged fixture. Lisburn have been thoroughly inconsistent this season; last Saturday, after several poor performances, they convincingly beat reigning champions North Down. So this is a difficult one to predict – certainly both sides have the batting firepower to make it a very entertaining 40 overs.

Then on Saturday CSNI visit Eaton Park. Ballymena will certainly be hoping to make up for a narrow defeat against the Stormont side back in early May.

CSNI have been batting well recently but their bowling appears to lack quality spinners so, if Ballymena maintain their recent good batting form, then there must be every chance of a home win.