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Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup, first round: Pembroke v Lisburn

Another day, another competition.  Lisburn travelled through the showers to play their first round tie in the Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup at Sydney Parade against Pembroke.  Both sides had lost players to school examinations: Lisburn's Adam Berry, one of the best young bats I've seen for a few years, had an A level to sit the following day; and Barry McCarthy, an Ireland under 17 team-mate of Berry's, was hors de combat for Pembroke because of the Leaving Certificate.

Pembroke batted first, and both Ryan Hopkins and Theo Lawson were determined to get after the Lisburn opening bowlers David Simpson and Andy Whitten.  With two balls remaing of the seventh over, Hopkins hoisted Simpson over the mid wicket boundary to take himself to 19 and the total to 34.  He was bowled next ball.

The gallop became a canter as Stephen Moreton dug in, but Lisburn delayed taking the bowling power play until the 12th over.  Twenty runs were added during the power play, during which Mark Berry and Heine van der Merwe took over the bowling, and steadied things so that the 20 over score was 75-1.

On that score Lawson slogged van der Merwe high to Rankin, who judged the catch well.  Jono Hickey joined his skipper, and both had let-offs as they tried to accelerate the scoring.  Moreton was third out for 29, caught by Thompson off McConkey, with the score at 114.  Twenty runs later Hickey chanced his arm once too often and was well taken low down by Tillekaratne off Whitten for 26.

Rohit Bahl looked in good touch, and both he and Danny Barclay were prepared to go over the top in pursuit of a score in excess of 225.  Dropped on 4, Barclay added another dozen before holing out to van der Merwe off Berry.  Six runs later Darren Nicol miscued Whitten to David Kelly, and at 159-6 in the 40th over, Pembroke were in danger of folding for less than 200.

However, Bahl continued to prosper with Brian O'Rourke until the pair had a yes, no, wait interlude resulting in O'Rourke sacrificing his wicket: 183-7 in the 45th over.  Eastwood started to strike the ball powerfully, and drilled one back at van der Merwe, high to his right.  Bravery prevailed over sanity: the little finger was dislocated and the ball went for four anyway.

McConkey and Thompson had been down to share ten overs, but with van der Merwe off to St. Vincent's, Thompson had to bowl a fifth over, during which he bowled Eastwood for 17.  Bahl had reached a fine fifty, and was last out for 65, caught and bowled by McConkey.  Pembroke closed on 232-9.

The four regular Lisburn bowlers were disciplined, and went for fours, but the fifth ten went at sevens.  Every batsmen arriving back in the hutch had described the pitch as two-paced and not that easy to bat on, so Lisburn would need a good start if they were to threaten 230.  They didn't get it and were never in the hunt.

Eastwood and Mann bowled with plenty of pace and occasional accuracy.  Mann bowled Halliday for a duck, hustling one through his defences.  In his next over he produced a beauty to rattle Tillekaratne's poles, and at the end of the mandatory power play the score was 22-2, half of them wides.

Greg Thompson tried to counter-attack, but was caught by Hickey off Eastwood at the end of the 15th over to make the score 36-3, whereupon heavy drizzle drove the players off for twenty minutes.  On resumption, Eastwood finished out his ten overs off a shortened run up because of a pulled hamstring, and Moreton's experiment with medium pace cost a few runs even though he did bowl Rankin for 14.

David Simpson and Richard McConkey valiantly tried to get Lisburn back into contention with a hard-hitting 60 run partnership, but just when they were getting a grip on things, McConkey (35) skied Hopkins to Darren Nicol, who took a very fine boundary catch.  van der Merwe had returned from Vincent's, patched up enough to bat, and added 22 in five overs before being lbw to Moreton's leg breaks.

He claimed it hit the bat: I have an image of the dismissal, but I haven't put it through Photoshop yet to shed any light on the merits of this claim (I have now, and it's inconclusive!).  Six runs later Simpson was lbw to Barclay for 42, Whitten caught by Paul Lawson off the same bowler (and very good catch), McKeown caught by Hopkins to give his skipper a Guildford Four-for, and that appeared to be that at 149-9.

That should have been that.  David Kelly swung Moreton straight down the throat of Paul Lawson, who could only push it over the rope for six.  Kelly and Mark Berry added 33 runs until Berry was stumped by Bahl off Barclay, leaving Kelly 24*.

Mann's opening spell was worth 2/21, Eastwood's 1/22.  Moreton's four wickets cost him 46 (mostly off his trundle), and Barclay's two 25, as Pembroke won by 50 runs and will now entertain Bready next Saturday in the second round.