Scorecard

Y.M.C.A. Cricket Club 1st XI v The Hills CC on Tue 02 Sep 2014 at 12.00pm
Y.M.C.A. Cricket Club Won by 6 wickets

Match report By Coverpoint (Stu Daultrey)

From the height of winning back the Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup to the depth of relegation, all within ten days: that was the prospect facing The Hills on Tuesday evening as they assembled at Claremont Road to play the rearranged match against YMCA. The home team too had a purpose: win the match and win the league for the first time since 1993.

Naseer Shoukat won the toss for The Hills and chose to bat. He sent out Klaas Pretorius and Mike Baumgart to face Bobby Gamble, bowling from the Aviva end. He started with a no ball, but atoned by avoiding any score from the subsequent free hit. He sinned again by bowling a wide that avoided the keeper and flew to the boundary. It was 6-0 without a run coming from the bat.

Then he found the edge, and Tom Fisher, at second slip, held the catch. Cormac McLoughlin defended the rest of the over. Simi Singh bowled his off breaks from the Wes Earl end, conceding a four to third man by Baumgart. In Gamble's second over the bowler was clipped to the mid wicket boundary and driven straight for four by the Kiwi, who then got after Singh. In Gamble's third over he dropped short and was cut and pulled by Baumgart, and when he pitched up he was on driven.

Albert van der Merwe brought himself on, but Baumgart continued his plunder: the total was 58-1 after six overs. Yaqoob Ali's unorthodox spinners went for only four, then McLoughlin, who had quietly advanced his score to 13, stepped from his crease but van der Merwe must have seen him coming and fired the ball down the leg side. PJ Moor removed the bails, and it was 69-2.

Naseer promoted himself to number four, played one delicate late cut, and was bowled by Ali for 3. Worse, Baumgart played van der Merwe uppishly towards square leg, where lurked Alan Lewis, the lone survivor from the 1993 side. The old boy is still as fit as a flea, and ever the showman: he held on to the catch with an exaggerated tumble. Baumgart had made 46 out of 74-4, and there were still ten overs for The Hills to double that at least.

Another old war horse was now introduced: Trent Johnston, whose first appearance in Dublin cricket was in 1995, the same season as saw Naseer's debut. He was dabbed to third man for four by Manu Kumar, but then had Kumar caught by Fisher for 6. Joseph Clinton, making his only appearance of the season for the firsts, on drove for three then pulled Ali to the fine leg boundary and edged a couple.

Max Sorensen had been very quiet, and wasn't loud enough when refusing an easy second, causing his partner to be run out by a county mile. That was 96-6, but there were still six overs to be bowled. A bit a long handle from the big fast bowler was the order of the day. Gamble came back to bowl his final over, and the ball was hit out to deep extra cover. van der Merwe is a very good fielder, and was quickly onto it and whizzed in his throw to the bowler's end. Sorensen had plenty of time to see there was no second, but started, stopped and was also run out.

100-7 was a very poor return after having been 69-1, and a lot of the damage had been self inflicted. Mark Dwyer and Tomás Murphy are both capable bats, but they struggled against Johnston and Singh, adding only 13 before Dwyer played on to Singh. In the final over Murphy heaved Singh to deep mid wicket where Jack Tector threw himself forward to take a fine catch. Number 11 Luke Clinton was then run out without facing (van der Merwe again), and The Hills were all out for 120 in 19.4 overs.

Of the YMCA bowlers, only Gamble went at significantly worse than fives, and the fielding had been very good. Twenty years ago, when teams weren't very good at twenty over cricket (the Alan Murray Cup long predates T20), it would have been possible to defend 120 - it is, after all, a run a ball - but these days a fielding team needs all the deities in its favour to prevent the batting side from reaching that target.

Naseer started from the Aviva end to the left-handed Tom Fisher, and was driven twice to the boundary. Max Sorensen was dumped over square leg for six by an Alan Lewis pick-up shot, but in the third over Fisher played too soon at Nasser and was caught at short mid off by McLoughlin. Then Lewis nicked Sorensen to Naseer at slip, and it was 18-2. Trent Johnston boomed a drive to the backward point boundary, then drove Murphy straight for four when the youngster replaced Sorensen.

Next ball TJ went for the lofted straight drive again, didn't get hold of it, and the ball arrowed to Kumar at mid on. After a juggle, he held on, and YMCA were 32-3. There was a chink in the curtain. Simi Singh and PJ Moor did what all batsmen should do - they batted, and batted, taking any single on offer and despatching the occasional half volley - a four here, a six there. This took them to 60-3 off 11 overs, when Naseer had to introduce his fifth bowler.

He chose Manu Kumar with his flattish off breaks, but Moor forced him off the back foot for four, hit a straight six, then reverse swept a four. Naseer bowled his final over and finished with 4-0-16-1 having conceded ten from his first over. Mark Dwyer was called up, and a beautifully flighted first delivery had Moor momentarily stranded out of his crease. Klaas Pretorius had the bails off and Moor looked down at his feet to see them back behind the line, then over at umpire Marty Block to see the dreaded digit held high. He shook his head and departed for 24 out of 78-4.

Sorensen and Dwyer bowled tight overs, and umpire Clive Colleran gave van der Merwe the benefit of the doubt when he had to propel his 6' 3" frame (plus the bat at the end of an outstretched arm) head first to complete a second run. My view was from extra cover, and I thought Clive was correct in his call. A Fingal connection who had been much squarer towards cover point didn't agree. I've often wondered how feasible it would be to install the necessary cameras to assist the umpires in Division 1 matches and cup finals.

Luke Clinton bowled a tight seventeenth over, and YMCA needed 28 off the final three. The first of those was bowled by Dwyer. Unfortunately for The Hills, it was also the last. Mark started by firing a dart down the leg side and to the boundary: 23 off 18 deliveries. van der Merwe then square cut a four, square drove a four, flogged six over mid wicket, on drove four, straight drove four to bring the scores level, then slog swept a six over squarish mid wicket.

That six ball burst took him to 34*, one more than his partner, Simi Singh. It won them the league title, about which most people in the big crowd that had built up on a beautiful evening were very pleased. But it had also relegated The Hills to play next season in the second tier of Leinster cricket for the first time since 2005, about which most people were very sad. There are not six teams better than The Hills in Leinster. They'll be back - just look at Clontarf.

Congratulations are due to YMCA for pipping Merrion at the post and bringing to fruition a lot of hard work by a lot of people over many years. And the success of the YMCA under age teams means that there should be a conveyor belt of talent to follow first team regulars Jack Tector and Aaron Bailey. Finally, to the big fella, thanks for everything - we all wish you every success in New South Wales.

The Hills CC Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 11w 2lb 
for 10 wickets
14
120 (19.5 overs)		     
N Pretorius + ct  T Fisher b R Gamble 0 6 0
M Baumgart ct  A Lewis b A Van der Merwe 46 33 7 1 139.39
C McLoughlin st  PJ Moor b A Van der Merwe 13 16 81.25
N Shoukart * b  Yaqoob Ali Shah 3 3 100
M Sorenson run out  (A Van der Merwe/R Gamble) 8 11 72.73
M Kumar ct  T Fisher b T Johnston 6 8 1 75.00
J Clinton run out  (R Gamble/T Johnston) 10 8 1 125.00
T Murphy ct  J Tector b S Singh 7 16 43.75
M Dwyer b  S Singh 8 10 80.0
W Archer Not Out  5 9 55.56
L Clinton run out  (A Van der Merwe/S Singh) 0

Y.M.C.A. Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Bobby N. Gamble4.0038138.009.50
Simi Singh3.501728.504.43
Albert Van Der Merwe4.0021210.505.25
Yaqoob Ali Shah4.0019119.004.75
Trent Johnston4.0023123.005.75

Y.M.C.A. Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
126		        
Tom D.L. Fisher ct  C McLoughlin b N Shoukat 10 11 2 90.91 2
D. Alan Lewis ct  N Shukat b M Sorenson 8 8 1 100 1
Simi Singh Not Out  33 43 2 1 76.74
Trent Johnston ct  M Kumar b T Murphy 9 8 2 112.50
Peter J. Moor st  N Pretorius b M Dwyer 24 21 3 1 114.29 1
Albert Van Der Merwe Not Out  34 17 4 2 200 2
Jack B. Tector   1
Sean C. Mcauley  
Bobby N. Gamble   1
Yaqoob Ali Shah  
Rajesh Chawla  

The Hills CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
N Shoukat4.0016116.004.00
M Sorenson3.0019119.006.33
T Murphy3.0013113.004.33
L Clinton4.002300.005.75
M Kumar1.001400.0014.00
M Dwyer3.0039139.0013.00

  • Umpire :
    M.Block & C.Colleran
  • Scorer :
    A.Mooney