Cork County 2 took on Co. Clare 2 on a bright, sunny summer’s Saturday afternoon at the Mardyke. It was technically Clare’s home game but due to lack of a ground in which to play they had to make the long trip down to Cork for the game.
Jeremy Mace won the toss for Clare and chose to bat on what looked an absolute belter of a wicket. It was County who got the upper hand immediately though, Junaid Amin (4-9) trapping Patrick McDonnell (0) lbw with the 5th ball of the innings.
Gurpreet (6) and Danish Ikram (12) then put on a decent partnership before the latter nicked off to Oliver Creedon (2-25). Gurpreet soon followed lbw, the bowling of Oscar Cotter (1-26) far too good for him.
County captain Kevin O’Sullivan had 5 seamers to choose from and it was first change bowler Oliver Creedon who picked up the next wicket, John O’Brien (14) chipping straight back to the bowler.
Wickets fell in a hurry after that, Martin Keohane taking a fine catch at point to dismiss Manvinder (6) off the bowling of Hugh O’Brien and Jeremy Mace the recipient of a golden duck, again off O’Brien.
John McDonnell’s middle stump was dislodged by Justin McGurk(1-40) and Richard Morton was bowled by the excellent Junaid for just 9.
Clare were in deep trouble and it went from bad to worse for them when they lost top-scorer Rajan (27) and tailender Tom Jones (0) in Junaid’s final over to finish on a below-par 113 all out. With the pitch playing beautifully, they would have expected at least 175 from their allocated overs.
After the interval, County went after the target with a vengeance, Brad Morgan (56*) smashing the Clare bowlers to all parts of the ground. After the slight inconvenience of losing opener Oliver Creedon (2) lbw to Jeremy Mace, the ‘away’ side took a more careful approach to things.
Watchful batting by Ian Coleman (30*) and Morgan getting County comfortably over the line in the 14th over.
A fantastic performance by Cork County 2 resulted in a 9 wicket win which puts them second in the division two table with four league games remaining.