11 July 2009
Posted in
Mens 1sts
Oh dear, oh dear. Back down to earth with a bump with a pretty awful display against bogey team Merrion. After winning the toss (the idea being to roll over Merrion, and then knock off the runs before the rain arrived), I confidently asserted that there was no way Merrion could win with the weather forecast being the way it was. I had obviously forgotten Leinster being rubbish in my calculations.
The pitch was another of those to make you want to give up the game - slow, low and nothing in it for the (Leinster) bowlers. Braithwaite had left the remote control for his radar at home, but Byrnes remembered his, and bowled a tidy opening spell, 1-14 (Beazley playing on) from six.
For the next 35 overs, not much happened for Leinster. In fairness there were at least five decent balls in most overs, the one pie being the problem. Joyce and Ackland never dominated, but then never looked in any trouble either, the only danger being for the low ones that tended to be dug out with ease. Scholtz and Dockrell did their normal thing of keeping it tight, but with the Merrion duo setting up the perfect platform for a decent total, it wasn't looking good for the Rathminers.
After Braithwaite, Scholtz, Dockrell, Miley and Lennon had all gone wicketless, it was left to the guile of Mark Jones to make the breakthrough. Senior wicket number 43 was a regulation full toss, which Ackland preceeded to whack down Miley's throat at cow, and soon after Blakeney did something similar. I'm not sure as to how many of those 44 wickets have come in a similar manner, but maybe the other bowlers should have tried something similar.
Petrie came in and smited/smit/smoted George Dockrell into Hazeldene for a few lusty blows, before Rob Miley was re-introduced from the same end to completely alter the course of his bowling figures, if nothing else. Petrie lost his leg peg trying to hit another big one, Fleming straight drove his first ball via Miley's fingers onto the stumps to bring Dom Joyce's 103 to an end, before hitting the next ball to Scholtz at extra cover.
Two balls later, Byrnes made a great running dive at long on, to give Miley another one. Before it was all over, Miley snared another one, who's method escapes me. 244-8 was the final total, not huge, but on a tough old deck, not easy. Mssrs Duckworth and Lewis were bound to have their say though, and in a virtual carbon copy of the Ireland Kenya match across the city, Leinster only needed 63-0, 72-1 or 83-2 from 20 overs to take the match when the inevitable rains came.
Unfortunately, whilst Porterfield and Wilson made it look easy against Kenya, the Leinster battng made it look exceedingly hard against Merrion. Petrie, who from my not too perfect vantage point in the pavilion, seemed to be finding prodigious amounts of movement caused all the trouble.
In his first over Jones tried to pull one which stayed low, cannoning onto off stump via a bottom edge. In his second over Braithwaite took two steps down, but not far enough for an apparent Petrie straight one, and in his third one, Molins' inside edge was found, giving Beazley a regulation pouch behind. All of a sudden, that DL target was out of reach, and rain was the only thing that could save Leinster, unless the rain didn't come at all and a rearguard action could save the game.
Caught betwixt and between, not much else happened. Dockrell hung around, played a few nice shots and ran out Mallon before losing his off peg. Scholtz looked good before spooning one to gully, and Lennon tried to mount a rearguard action before misaiming his artillery, and coming up short of the enemy trenches.
As the rains descended, Keaveney offered a glimmer of hope by bowling three consecutive five run wides. If the over had continued for another 17 balls, Leinster may well have won. By that time though the inevitable occurred, the rain was too heavy, the players came off, and it was only left for the cricketer's nightmare, the two hour wait to find out what everyone knew anyway. Leinster had been stuffed.
