Little for cricketers to be ‘Merri’ about in cup exit

Having restricted Merrion to 191 in the first innings Ballymena fell well short after being dismissed for 138.

Merrion won the toss and elected to bat in Ballymena’s first home game of the season. With a strong batting line up and wicket that looked to be in good condition Merrion would have hoped to set a target of about 250 for Ballymena to chase. With Fergus Taylor and Michael Glass sharing the new ball for Ballymena, Merrion made a steady start to their innings reaching 39 without loss after the first 10 overs.

Just as the Merrion openers looked to be building a solid platform, first change bowler, Robert McKinley struck with his 4th ball to remove former Ireland International Dom Joyce lbw for 14. Joyce was quickly followed by his opening partner in the next over as Michael Glass struck to leave Merrion 46 for 2.

Merrion captain, John Anderson, was joined at the crease by Ireland under 19 batsmen Tyrone Kane. Just as they looked to be giving the Merrion’s innings some momentum Kane feel victim to Steve Lazars lbw after missing an attempted sweep. At this stage Merrion were 86 for 3 in the 27th over.

This was to be the pattern that continued in the Merrion innings; each time they started to gain a little momentum Ballymena managed to secure a breakthrough.

At the end of the Merrion innings they reached 191 for 7 with their captain finishing top scorer with 67 no. Having bowled and fielded well Ballymena felt that 191 was an achievable target.

Ballymena’s opening batsmen looked to be settling into their task when Steve Lazars mis-timed an attempted pull shot and was easily caught leaving Ballymena 26 for 1 in the 5th over.

Robert McKinley was joined at the crease by David Kennedy, who had struggled for runs in his first 2 innings. Ballymena were having no issue with run rate and moved onto 49 for 1 after 9 over.

At this stage Ballymena were well positioned to reach the runs required but in the 10th over the match swung back into Merrion’s favour. Firstly David Kennedy was bowled by a great delivery from Tyrone Kane who then proceeded to dismiss Ballymena Professional, Kaushik Aphale, lbw next ball as Ballymena quickly found themselves 50 for 3.

Andrew Kirkpatrick joined young McKinley at the crease as they looked to rebuild Ballymena’s innings. They looked to be achieving this as they moved onto 79 in the 21st over when a loss of concentration from McKinley saw him run out for 30. McKinley was particularly disappointed as he had looked in no real danger and was well settled at the crease.

Again, as so often the case this season, one wicket was quickly followed by more as Ballymena moved from 79 for 3 to 97 for 7 in the space of 5 overs. Despite some late resistance by Gareth Fisher and Michael Glass Ballymena fell well short after finishing 138 all out. The most disappointing aspect of the Ballymena batting display was that 7 out of the 10 batsmen got themselves out.

Next up Ballymena face Lisburn away in the Lagan Valley Steels Twenty20 Cup on Wednesday night followed by a trip to North Down on Saturday in the first round of the Ulster Bank Challenge Cup.