Ballymena v Armagh 26/08/2008

A heavily depleted Armagh side travelled to league leaders Ballymena on Bank Holiday Monday hoping to get an unexpected victory to boost their survival hopes. With several first team players unavailable due to various work commitments, Alan Whitcroft stepped into the captaincy, with his younger brother Stuart also playing  apart. After a rain delay, Armagh decided to field and see whether they could exploit the difficult conditions, but Ballymena’s top class line-up weren’t looking to give any favours and opened with a steady partnership. A breakthrough came when the brothers Whitcroft removed Montgomery, Alan taking the catch to give his younger brother his first senior wicket. Wickets actually began to fall on a fairly regular basis after that with Alan Whitcroft the destroyer-in-chief taking out most of the middle order, including former Armagh professional Steve Lazars for a mere 16. Two wickets in the final two deliveries of the 40 overs from Whitcroft gave him a well deserved five wicket haul and restricted Ballymena to 160-9. Special mention must go to Ryan McCarter and first team debutant Adam Breakey who both patrolled the outfield superbly throughout.

The target was still a big one for Armagh and the task was made tougher with the early loss of Steenson, Villiers and Kulkarni. Phil Doyle was looking in decent form with a couple of lovely boundaries but his attacking instincts got the better of him and he was stumped. The rest of the batsmen came and went on a regular basis with everyone getting a start but failing to continue, with Armagh finally dismissed in the final over for just 99.

A harsh margin of defeat in the end perhaps, but plenty of encouraging signs for an Armagh team who showed plenty of skill and fight in the field. As ever though, there wasn’t really enough impact with the bat to make Ballymena sweat as they sealed their promotion.

Scorecard can be found here!