In a tight and at times tense RSA Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup Final today in Castle Avenue. The Hills beat the holders Clontarf by 9 runs. Set 240 to win the home team were all out off the second ball of the final over when Zander Van Der Merwe was caught on the boundary by Tomas Murphy off Max Sorensen’s bowling.
The Hills lost the toss on a sunny but chilly morning and had to bat first. They won back the trophy that they took in 2012 but when they had collapsed from 207 for 3 to 239 all out in the space of 33 balls they must have feared the worst against a side who were going for their second successive cup double of the Leinster Senior Cup and the Irish Senior Cup.
The crucial partnership of the match was between Cormac McLaughlin and Michael Baumgart who added 106 runs for the third wicket. McLaughlin, who batted for the latter part of his innings with a runner because of a hamstring injury, top scored with 75 which included 3 fours and a six. Baumgart played the most aggressive innings of the match with his 62 coming off just 63 deliveries and he hit 8 of those balls to the boundary.
However superb bowling in the final five overs by Van Der Merwe and Joe Morrissey destroyed the late order with no batsman getting more than 12 and sent Clontarf into the break with a pep in their step and facing a target some forty runs less than had appeared likely an hour earlier.
Clontarf never really got going in their reply losing Mark Collier to the third ball of the innings and then young Colin Currie with the score on 18 to the penultimate ball of the 6th over. Then followed the first of the only meaningful partnerships when last week’s hero Bill Coughlan and Andrew Poynter put on 77 which occupied 21 overs. Unfortunately for Clontarf both were dismissed with the score on 95: Coughlan for 40 and Poynter who managed just one run more.
Adrian Darcy and skipper Eoghan Delany rebuilt the innings and got their side to within 50 runs of the target when D’arcy holed out to Kumar for a run a ball 51 which contained 5 fours and a beautiful straight six. The loss of Delany stumped off the wily veteran Nazeer Shoukat for 41 left Clontarf needing 32 off the last 22 balls but Joe Morrissey was unable to repeat last week’s winning cameo and the win was a last bridge too far.
Cormac McLaughlin was named Man of the Match for his crucial innings and in the end The Hills deservedly lifted the trophy as they fought back from a potentially disastrous end to their innings.
THE HILLS 239 FROM 49.3 OVERS (C McLaughlin 75, M Baumgart 62, Z Van Der Merwe 4-30, J Morrissey 2-30)
BEAT
CLONTARF 230 FROM 49, 2 OVERS (A D’arcy 51, A Poynter 41, E Delany 41, N Shoukat 3-40, M Sorensen 3-50)
BY 9 RUNS
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