Win pushes Lisburn up Premier League table

On a bright day at Stormont, Lisburn again asked the opposition to bat first and were rewarded with the early wicket of Horwood when Davey Simpson had him lbw in the 3rd over but CSNI captain Alec Cowden set about repairing the situation and with Peter Beverland added 52 for the 2nd wicket before Beverland was forced to leave the pitch through injury.

He was replaced by Amjad the professional and he and Cowden also had their best partnership of the innings with 80 in 18 overs with Lisburn unable to stop the flow of runs.

Cowden was given a ‘life’ when he was 20 but both he and Amjad lifted the tempo of the innings until Amjad played a very rash shot and was caught by Callum Atkinson at point for 34 in the 45th over leaving Cowden to try and boost the CSNI innings and push on to his century.

However, with his score on 91 and the total on 203 in the 48th over, he was caught by Cody Chetty in the deep and again Lisburn had halted the late innings runs with the crucial of the CSNI captain.

Getkate [33] and van de Merwe with 19 off just 15 deliveries took the final CSNI tally to 215 for 4 when the 50 overs were completed and Lisburn must have felt very relieved that the score had not been at least 30 runs more considering that the home side were 140 for 2 after 36 overs.

The Lisburn bowling had been accurate throughout with Davey Simpson taking 1 for 31 from his 10 overs. Mark Berry recently chosen for the Northern Knights team took 1 for 49 off his 10 while Steve Lazars with 1 for 38 and Richard McConkey with 1 for 49 completed the bowling figures for the visitors.

Lisburn’s innings unfortunately began with another early dismissal of Robert Rankin when he was caught at point leaving Adam Berry and Richard Simpson to build the innings. The next 16 overs produced 49 runs before a misunderstanding between Berry and Simpson led to Simpson’s run out for a patient 14.

The next stand of consequence was the best of the innings with Berry, who again showed great form and Chetty which promoted Lisburn’s score to a very respectable 153 before Chetty was unexpectedly clean bowled by Adair for a very well constructed 51 from 72 balls.

The Lisburn professional was out in the 40th over with his team still requiring 65 off the remaining 10 overs and Steve Lazars was the right man for the difficult task. He immediately took the attack to the CSNI bowlers smacking a very quick 40 in just 25 deliveries and bringing Lisburn well into a winning position in the process.

However the final 20 runs proved hard to acquire as Adam Berry having struck seven boundaries and three massive sixes [two of which were touched by the fielder on the way over the boundary]. His 94 was his highest score in Premier cricket and it had set his team up for victory. He was out in the 45th over and two overs later with 14 still needed Steve Lazars was caught in the deep just when it seemed Lisburn were cruising to a fine win. He had scored a quick fire 40 with three super sixes but after the dismissal of Nathan Waller it was left to David Simpson and Simon Olphert to see Lisburn through to another win with just 4 balls to spare.

This victory pushed Lisburn well up the Premier table with 16 points leaving Derriaghy, CIYMS and North Down below them. This Saturday sees the team move to Carrickfergus to try to complete a ‘double‘ over their opponents having beaten them in the Park earlier in the season.

Scorecard

CSNI innings;

W.Horwood lbw b D.Simpson 5

A.Cowden ct Chetty b M.Berry 91

P.Beverland retired hurt 23

M.Amjad ct Atkinson b Lazars 34

S.Getkate ct A.Berry b McConkey 33

J.van de Merwe not out 19

Extras 10

Total 215 for 4 in 50 overs

1-8 2-60 3-140 4-180

Lisburn bowling D.Simpson 10-3-31-1 M.Berry 10-0-49-1 R.McConkey 9-0-49-1 S.Lazars 10-1-38-1 C.Atkinson 9-1-25-0 N.Waller 2-0-18-0

Lisburn innings;

R.Rankin caught Cowden b Costain 0

R.Simpson run out 14

A.Berry b Blain 94

C.Chetty b Adair 51

S.Lazars ct Van de Merwe b Amjad 40

N.Waller lbw b Blain 2

D.Simpson not out 4

S.Olphert not out 1

Extras 9

Total 216 for 6 in 49.1 overs

Fall of wkts 1-2 2-51 3-153 4-192 5-200 6-212

CSNI bowling A.Blain 9.1-2-42-2 J.Costain 10-0-37-1 M.Amjad 10-1-39-1 B.Adair 7-0-39-1 J.van de Merwe 10-0-45-0 A.Cowden 3-0-10-0

Result; Lisburn won by 4 wickets.