Nenagh Cricket Club stay in league hunt

Nenagh Cricket Club finished its T20 hom schedule with a comeback victory over Cork Harlequins on Sunday.

On one of the hottest days of the summer, on a beautifully cut Ballyeighan ground, Nenagh pulled out their sweetest win of the season.

After winning the toss, Nenagh asked the opposition to bat. Cork openers Joe Hourihane and Umair Hassan showed no sign of tiredness of the two-hour road trip; the first ball of the match was sent to boundary by Hourihane and Hassan joined the party with a six and couple of boundaries. Cork scored 46/0 of just four overs, so Nenagh needed to do something special urgently to stop them from getting away to a high score.

A double bowling change was made which did the trick, the wicket of Hassan (18) bowled by Ebin Baby (13/2), who continued his impressive form. Next was the turn of Jomy Joseph (18/2), as he struck twice in as many overs, Brandon Kruger clean bowled and wicket keeper batsman Joe Hourihane caught by Vimal John.

Ebin added one more wicket to his tally next over, Max Egan was clean bowled for naught. Cork slipped to 57/4 of 8 overs, Nenagh were able to stop the run flow and started to take control of their bowling innings. Cork eventually ended their innings at a below par 128/7.

Nenagh’s fielders pulled out some brilliant saves to stop the ball going to boundary, then effected a run out, on such a super-hot day was crucial in restricting them to the score.

Nenagh’s rivalry with Cork Harlequins goes back several years and always served with eventful hard fighting matches. Nenagh had to win the game to stay in the hunt for the league title. With lots at stake, Nenagh batters knew they have to recharge their energy levels as quickly as possible to have a chance to chase down the target.

Captain Ginson Abraham opened the chasing innings and fittingly hit the winning shot to the boundary, a pull shot to midwicket, earlier he took a blow in the face with a short ball bowled by left hand fast bowler Aqib Hameed. Play was paused for few minutes to check on him.

A perfect reply was given by the Nenagh batters as they combined to score 25 runs, four boundaries where hit in that over, Ginson hit three of them. However, a valuable lesson learned for all cricketers on watch especially to Nenagh captain to wear a helmet, even on the hottest day of the summer.

Earlier in the chase, Nenagh found themselves in a spot of bother with two wickets in first three overs, and the departure of danger man Sreenivas on the last over of powerplay when the score was 25/3. Vimal John joined Captain in the middle, then gave much needed boost to the innings by hitting three fours in a row to Cork spinner Brandon Kruger. Another two where hit next over bowled by Umair Hassan.

With the momentum shifting towards Nenagh and both batters in fine touch, they took on Aqib’s eventful tenth over for 25 runs and stamped Nenagh’s authority over the game.

Nenagh reached the target with ease, thanks to the unbeaten 106 run partnership between Ginson Abraham (66 not out, 9 fours, 1 six) who played captain’s innings to score first half century of the season and Vimal John (34 not out, 6 fours).

Nenagh took 24 points from the game, including four bonus points, and joined Cork County, Cork Harlequins and Limerick Blasters as title contenders.

Next weekend, Cork County plays Cork Harlequins while Nenagh play Limerick Blasters, away at Lydican, Galway. Nenagh need to win, along with a loss for Cork County to win the title.