Nenagh Cricket Club celebrate anniversary in style

Nenagh Cricket Club hosted Midleton at their home ground in Ballingarry, on the foothills of Knockshegowna on Saturday.

A win was crucial for Nenagh to stay alive in the Division 1 T20 Munster League and the team rose to challenge in magnificent fashion.

On a pleasant afternoon, Nenagh Captain Ginson Abraham won the toss and decided to bowl first. The Nenagh opening bowlers started well and made scoring difficult for the Midleton opening batters. Fast bowler Cinulal V was the first to strike, inducing an edge of Sajeev Nair’s bat which was taken superbly by wicketkeeper SreeHari Vinobhaji.

One wicket became two as poor judgement of a run by Midleton’s batters lead to a run out, magnificently fielded by Jomy Joseph off his own bowling with the wicketkeeper taking the bails off before the batter could make his ground.

The next over saw a second wicket for Cinulal V, as Midleton batter Atif Jammel, after hitting two boundaries, mistimed an aggressive shot and Vimal John completed a well-judged catch at mid-off. Midleton were struggling at 12/3 and facing prospect of getting bowled out cheaply.

A fourth wicket partnership of 82 runs in 11 overs between Balaji Suresh (35 runs) and Jissmon (42 runs) not only helped Midleton to recover but also threatened to get away with a huge score in the first innings.

The introduction of in-form spin bowler Jojin Mathew, led to the wicket of Balaji who was stumped of a wide ball by wicketkeeper SreeHari and broke the partnership. Tiju George chipped in with wicket of Midleton’s top-scorer Jissmon in the next over, another catch for wicketkeeper SreeHari.

In the next over, wickets in consecutive balls for Mathew meant another collapse for Midleton, the score at 115/7 with just three overs to go.

However, some late hitting by Midleton captain Danish Iqbal (28 runs) before getting caught at the boundary line by opposite skipper Ginson Abraham of the bowling of Sreenivas, lifted Midleton to 143/9 at the end of allocated 20 overs.

Nenagh bowlers generally had a good day out, Jojin Mathew took three wickets for 28 runs, Cinulal V and Sreenivas took two wickets each for 22 runs, Tiju George took a wicket. Nenagh wicketkeeper SreeHari Vinobhaji had a good day behind stumps after being part of four dismissals, as he took two catches, a stumping also effected a run out.

Nenagh’s fielding was top notch as the catches were held and run out chances taken, which was significantly improved performance comparing to last two matches.

Nenagh needed to score at 7.2 runs per over to register their first win of the season, so a good start was essential to fancy any of those ideas.

Opener Anulal V was playing his first game of the season after paternal leave for the last two games, alongside him was Nenagh skipper Ginson Abraham.

Nenagh openers found good rhythm early on by getting their team a flying start, both openers hit their first ball to boundaries. With the intent clear, Nenagh batters punished Midleton bowlers loose balls, and at the end first six overs power play, Nenagh were on track in the chase with score at 42 runs for no loss.

Fifty runs for the opening wicket was bought on when Ginson cleared long off boundary, in the last ball of the same over trying to repeat the same shot, he got out caught at the boundary line for 22 runs. Nenagh score 57/1 off 8 overs.

A quick second wicket of Lethin Mathew for naught, should have given Midleton hope of a comeback. However, next batter in Sreenivas Maniappan immediately defused any of those hopes, it was a batting display of high-class power hitting, his stay lasted only 24 balls for 48 runs, striking at 200.

Sreenivas dispatched nine balls faced to the boundary. Four of them over the fence, one landed straight in the dressing room putting Nenagh players and the door window were in a spot of bother for a second or two, other one landed on an electric post about 30 yards from the boundary line. Even the electric supply to the village was under pressure off his batting let alone the Midleton players. Sreenivas scored 21 runs of a single over, were he hit two sixes and fours each. It was vintage Sreenivas who helped Nenagh win many matches over the years. He missed out on the first half-century of the season by two runs. However, at the fall of his wicket, Nenagh needed only 19 runs of four overs, required rate dropped to 4.8 runs per over.

SreeHari Vinobhaji hit a towering six to seal victory for Nenagh with eight balls to spare with opener Anulal V, who carried his bat, scoring 40 not out at the other end.

Nenagh batters should feel proud about their performances on the day after mediocre displays in the first two games. Sreenivas Maniappen won the most valuable player award for his performance of two wickets with ball and 48 runs at a strike rate of 200.

Full scorecard of the game and league standings is available in CricHQ website.

Next game for Nenagh CC is against local rivals Limerick CC at Ballingarry this Saturday 3rd July at 1.00pm.

Nenagh Cricket Club presented its jersey number 100 to our sponsor and long-time supporter Reji Abraham of Mini Market Nenagh. Club chairman Jomy Joseph and secretary Anulal V handed over the jersey and thanked Mini Market for their generous support over the years.