Cork County took a big step towards dragging themselves back into promotion contention in Leinster Division 2 following a 7 wicket victory over Rush at the Mardyke on Saturday, 16th July. In what proved to be an important weekend overall with some surprising results which could have a major bearing on the final standings at the end of the year.
The big surprise of the day was the win by bottom team North Kildare over Leinster, a result that really opens up the race for promotion. That result in addition to Cork County’s sees the Leesiders as the third team in likely contention for promotion back to Division 1.
Rush batted first and got off to a good start with an 86 run opening partnership between Stephen Doheny (56) and Lynal Jansen (37). But thereafter it became something of a procession and Rush were all out for 147. The turning point in the game came with the introduction into the attack of Stephan Grobler and Bilal Bhatti. In a spell of 9.4 overs Grobler emerged with the remarkable figures of 6-15, ably supported by Bilal (3-15). Cork did not have too much trouble chasing down the score which they did in the 27th over with Grobler (62) again in the runs.
Leinster Division 2:
Cork County 148-3 (Grobler 62, Bauer 33*) beat Rush 147 all out (Doheny 56, Jansen 37, Grobler 6-15, Bhatti 3-15) by 7 wickets at the Mardyke. scorecard
Leinster Division 2
| P | W | T | NR | L | BP | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Dublin University
|
7
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
46
|
206
|
|
Balbriggan
|
7
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
16
|
136
|
|
Leinster
|
7
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
33
|
133
|
|
Cork County
|
8
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
24
|
124
|
|
Malahide
|
8
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
12
|
92
|
|
Terenure
|
8
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
24
|
84
|
|
Rush
|
7
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
19
|
79
|
|
North Kildare
|
8
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
22
|
72
|
Approximate standings as of 18th July 2016.
