Adamstown Cricket Club News story


Adamstown 1 wins First league match against Mullingar 2

04 May 2011

Adamstown got their league cricket career off to a flying start with a thrilling win away to much fancied Mullingar 2. Mullingar's wonderful new venue of St Finnians played host to an exciting encounter on this sunny Westmeath bank holiday.

Mullingar won the toss and chose to bat first on their newly installed artificial track. With a lightning quick, parched outfield a big 200 plus score was very much on the cards. Adamstown openers Sid and Vickram caused problems for the Mullingar batsmen right from the start with Vickram's swing and bounce and Sid's outright pace combining well. The breakthrough came early on with opener Nautiyal caught nicely by Waquas off Sid. Mullingar 5/1. Ed Lindsey was next to go, trapped in front LBW to Vickram. Mullingar struggling at 37/2. When Mullingar no.4 Ali Haider soon followed leaving the score at 59/3 things looked bleak for this much fancied Westmeath side. This came after a period of pressure following the bowling change bringing Sanjeev K and Navroop into the attack and it was these two who took the wicket with Navroop taking a screamer of a catch at deep midwicket off Sanjeev's bowling. It was at this time that Mullingar Captain I. Haider and new man at the crease O'Neil came together and this partnership of 42 valuable runs brought Mullingar past the 100 mark. Beautiful square cuts from Haider combined with sweet front foot drives from O'Neill to frustrate the Adamstown team who watched their grip on the game begin to slip away.

If Mullingar were revived by great play from their captain, Adamstown were not to be out-done and up stepped their captain for the day Ashish to take charge. Bringing himself on to bowl up the hill and putting lightning fast Sid back on down the hill proved to be a killer combination. Ahish's tempting spin following Sid's blistering bowling at the other end proved too much for the Mullingar middle order as first the partnership of Haider and O'Neil was removed (both LBW to Ashish) and then the lower middle order dismantled. Ashish picked up 6 wickets in a spell that could easily have been 8 had Adamstown held all their catches. Waquas picked up another tidy catch and Kamil and Paul also took fine catches in the deep. Paul came on to replace Sid and finally got a wicket when unlucky no. 11 for Mullingar played on to his stumps from the worst ball of the day. Great late contributions from Sharma (16) and O'Donnell (13) saw Mullingar climb to a respectable 175 all out in the 41st over. With extras of 40 (including 30 wides!) proving Adamstown's undoing in the end the South Dublin lads will know they must be tighter in future. It was an innings for the Captains to be proud of: Haider finishing with lovely knock of 43 and Ashish ending with best ever figures of 6/30 off 8 overs.

A lovely tea was provided by Mullingar
and then openers Olag and Paul set out to get the 176 needed in the 49 available overs. However, Mullingar pace man Tahir had other ideas from the beginning. Fresh from his great performance opening the bowling for Mullingar 1sts in league 4 Tahir set about his task with venom and accuracy. Unfortunately opener Olag had to retire after only 3 balls with a severely broken thumb (out for the season and now in plaster!). Out came Vikram but he fell to a peach of a delivery from other opener Sharma, also after only 3 balls. Adamstown reeling on 3/1 and another in hospital.
Welcome to the league Adamstown!

At this point danger man Mohan came together with Paul and together the pair set about grinding out a partnership against this Mullingar onslaught. This they did to great effect neutralizing opener Tahir and picking off the runs from the other end. Bowling changes came and went but 22 overs later the pair were still there with the score pushed nicely along to 89/1. A critical breakthrough for Mullingar came when Mohan played an uncharacteristic shot in the air and was caught at midwicket. 45 classy runs under pressure from the in-form Mohan who showed he can dig in when the team needs him to. In came Sid at this point for his first innings for Adamstown. He played very nicely and this pair brought Adamstown up to a very handy 114/2. 62 runs to get, 23 overs to get them. What could go wrong? It was at this point that Adamstown began to press the self destruct button with Paul playing needlessly at a ball to scoop it to mid off. Out for 44 runs from a whopping 91balls that included 68 dot balls! Thrilling stuff. Boycott eat your heart out. With a batting order as deep as Adamstown's the 60 runs should have been a walk in the park but maybe early season nerves got to the lads as wickets started to tumble. To Mullingar's credit they never let their heads drop and kept the pressure on throughout. The 3 quick wickets of Waquas, Navroop and Dhruv (all out for 1 each) were then followed by the loss of Sid (22), bowled by the excellent Sharma who finished on excellent fugues of 5/30 and was a threat all day. Sid played nicely under pressure and will be one to watch this season.

Adamstown were now in major trouble on 130/7. Captain Ashish attempted to repeat his heroics of the first innings but he too found Mullingar's bowling a handful and popped a catch after just 2 runs. Adamstown now down to their last pair in Sanjeev K and Kamil and with 176 still 30runs away, the Mullingar team and fans jubilant and fired up things looked bleak. The Adamstown self belief and team spirit kicked in at this point. The team knew that Sanjeev and Kamil could still easily bring it home. Every run was cheered and when Kamil smashed Tahir for four back over his head we knew we were in for a special finish. 20 needed. Sanjeev K not to be out done took the Mullingar spinner for a four and then a six! 10 needed. As the runs were counted down by the crowd Adamstown closed in on the target with some really measured strokes. 2 needed. A missed delivery by the wicket keeper brought the ball almost to the long boundary. Easy two! Game won! No,only one was the call! Inexplicable! The ball was still at the boundary. "No just leave it at one" was the call! Unbelievable stuff. Crowd tearing their hair out. Next delivery Kamil lofts straight up. Fielders converge. Crowd holds it's breath. Ball falls between the fielders and the Adamstown men run in the winning run with the team streaming onto the pitch. Very bad luck Mullingar but what a win for Adamstown. Heroes Sanjeev K (17) and Kamil (18) deserve all the praise for unbelievable calm under pressure. What a fantastic game of cricket. Full marks to Mullingar for being gracious hosts and best of luck to them this season.