‘Yogi’ set to make Eaton Park debut this week

Heavy rain on Saturday meant that there was no chance of Ballymena 1st XI’s Premier League game at Waringstown going ahead.
Yogesh Takawale is in line to make his Ballymena Cricket Club debut this weekend. Picture: Press Eye.Yogesh Takawale is in line to make his Ballymena Cricket Club debut this weekend. Picture: Press Eye.
Yogesh Takawale is in line to make his Ballymena Cricket Club debut this weekend. Picture: Press Eye.

The fixture will be arranged for later this month, either on a Friday afternoon or as a two-night game. One consolation for Ballymena from the postponement means that they will be able to field a much stronger side when the game does take place.

The much-promised arrival of Ballymena’s new professional, Yogesh Takawale, will take place to-day (Tuesday) after he was further delayed due to commitments with his franchise employers in the Indian Premier League.

“Yogi” will make his Premier League debut for the Eaton Park side in the home game against CSNI on Saturday (1.00 p.m).

His presence should be a huge boost for the Ballymena players, who have been badly hit by a series of injuries and player-unavailabilities during May.

Takawale’s record , both at home in India and with Derriaghy last summer, clearly mark him out as an outstanding batsman and his arrival could well be the turning-point of Ballymena’s season.

But even with Takawale in the line-up, Ballymena’s other batsmen will need to show a big improvement on recent games if they are to reach a competitive total.