Holywood V Armagh 14/06/08

Armagh remain adrift after Holywood hammering

Armagh remained marooned at the bottom of Section Two after another heavy defeat, this time at the hands of an efficient Holywood side. Although missing David Bullick with his worrying back injury Armagh were otherwise at decent strength and were happy to win the toss and bat on a good looking strip. Gareth Robinson fell early but Michael Villiers and CP Kulkarni batted well in partnership and added a fifty partnership in good time with a mixture of good running and some smart strokes. Unfortunately Holywood’s seam bowling would account for both in fairly quick succession to catches behind the wicket and an all too familiar collapse happened as Armagh folded to 142 all out, not long after being strongly set at 92-2. If the visitors were to get anything from the game they would need to make an early breakthrough but despite the best efforts of Kulkarni this was not forthcoming. The diminutive Indian pacer had two great lbw shouts against professional Jeremy Roscoe but both were somehow declined by the umpire. In fairness to the Holywood Australian pair of Roscoe and Seamus Sharkey though both batted very well to punish the loose bowling and each recorded a half century as they raced towards the target. Armagh did snatch a consolation wicket as occasional bowler Mark Elliott used all of his guile and experience to tempt Sharkey to be caught on the boundary by Robinson while going for the winning shot, but this merely delayed the inevitable as a nine wicket defeat was sealed soon after.

Captain Andrew Bratten was naturally disappointed that his team had thrown away another good position at a crucial stage of the game and were beaten because of it. “There is a lack of confidence about the team at present and to be honest when a wicket falls the nerves in the dressing room are contagious. Again Michael, Charu and Colin had us in a decent position to build for a 200 score but we collapse to a below par effort time and time again. We are going to need a few wins soon and get a bit of belief back into our play”