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Division 2: North County 2 v Leinster

On Sunday I brought a heavy shower with me as I turned east off the M1, and on arrival at Inch found that some overnight rain had got under the covers making the crease at the road end rather damp.  The umpires delayed the start by half an hour, but it was still a fifty over game.

John Andrews won the toss for North County 2 and asked Leinster to bat.  Mark Jones tucked into Terry Richardson and Conor Shiel to get the ten over score to 48-0, and the fifteen over score to 71-0, by which time Craig Mallon had got his drive working.  Manmeet Sihgh and Ian Bertram had replaced Richardson and Shiel, but the batsmen were untroubled until Adam Coughlan appeared from the Knockbrack end and fired in his off breaks.

Jones had just passed fifty when he swung across the line at a Coughlan half volley and missed.  The appeal was answered in the affirmative by Azam Ali Baig, much to Jonesey's disgust.  Off he trudged for 54 out of 89.  Shortly afterwards a brief shower reduced the match to 49 overs per side.

Left-hander Zac Curtis got one that turned and lifted, and edged it to John Andrews at slip.  Anton Scholtz slogged Coghlan straight to Shiel and wide mid on to make it 118-3 in the 26th over.  The perennial question with Leinster is not 'Will there be a collapse?' but 'How bad will the collapse be?'  JP O'Dwyer is a very solid performer these days, and when he and Mallon survived chances, both to Coghlan, they dug in and advanced the score to 168 in the 36th over when Mallon was trapped lbw by Coghlan for a fighting 68.

Dave Lucas beavered away with JP to add forty and start off a very productive batting power play.  Although County took three wickets during it – Lucas for 20, JP for 47 and Peter Byrne for 8 – Leinster added 43 runs from the five overs, and the tail pressed on to 260-9 in the 49 overs.

Shane Plant (0/53) and Conor Shiel (2/56) bowled some good stuff in their ten over sets, but too many bad balls.  Adam Coughlan's 10-2-29-4 was a very good effort, although I wish he'd give the ball just a little more air to make the batsmen think – just like the one with which he got Curtis.

Much to the mystification of, among others, Joey Mooney, D/L set County 263 to win in their 49 overs, but there's more than D/L that mystifies our Joey!  However, it's hard to imagine North County without him, or his brothers and their families, or his wife Angela and all the other Murphys and their families.  It's been one of the great pleasures of my life in Dublin to get to know the Fingal cricketers.

Adam Coughlan and Greg Hay led County's pursuit, with the former hitting boundaries off his legs as well as poking forward uppishly towards silly mid on.  JP was admonished for walking in towards that area inside the 15 yard circle, and it took some discussion to establish that he was allowed to do that as long as there were two stationary catchers elsewhere.

Having lofted Edwards for 6 to take him to 19 out of 27, Coughlan was bowled by Will Lennon, and next over from the road end Cormac McLoghlin played too soon at the same bowler and popped a catch to Lucas.  Singh, resplendent in a canary yellow helmet, looked good and ran himself out.

Hay had unleashed some fierce shots to get to 32, but was undone by a complete pie – Peter Byrne's first ball, the loosest of looseners – which skewed up to Lucas at mid on.  Shane Plant was good value for his 19 before he chipped a return catch to Corey Edwards.  That was 87-5 in the 23rd over and effectively game over as a big black cloud slipped by just to the south.

Incy, as Byrne is fondly known, accumulated a Guildford with his slow left-arm, two of them from the Andrews family.  Father John had strode out to the crease at the fall of the sixth wicket in his green helmet, but then returned to collect his bat.  He was non-striker for that over, but when he came on strike for the next over he had to return once more, this time for his box!

Why somebody quarried out of volcanic rock needs a box, I don't know, but perhaps they're de rigeur on Easter Island.  He poked around for a couple of overs, slapped a straight-ish six into the netting at the road end, and was then bewildered to be given out lbw.  I presume he and Jonesey compared notes after the game.

Ian Bertram launched an assault that got him to 29 and his team to 146 before he was bowled by Anton Scholtz.  Byrne's figures were 10-0-28-4, Lennon took 2/24, and Leinster looked what they are – a poorish Division 1 side that's far too good on most occasions for most Division 2 opposition.  But there's plenty of opportunity between now and September for them to make a bags of their return to the top flight.