Armagh V Cregagh

Armagh built on their superb victory at Saintfield last Sunday with two comprehensive wins on the Mall with ten wicket wins against Cregagh and Drumaness respectively.

Saturday’s game against Cregagh saw Armagh make two changes to the team that beat Saintfield with Reg Stinson and Philip Doyle coming into the side for Andrew Bratten and Lloyd Hamilton who was unavailable with work commitments. Armagh captain Charu Kulkarni won another toss and chose to bowl first with conditions fairly murky and overcast, but Reg Stinson made it seem a good decision when he bowled Kerr with a beautiful delivery. Walker was run out in shambolic circumstances and when Stinson duped Mohamed into a caught and bowled Cregagh were struggling badly at 9-3. McCormick and Thakur tried to consolidate against the relentless accuracy of Stinson, Kulkarni and David Bullick but the former was dismissed when he drove a full ball from Bullick straight to Kulkarni at mid-off and the safe hands of the Armagh captain made no mistake. Trimble went without scoring after hooking Harry Doyle to Matthew Steenson at fine leg before Bullick clean bowled Stewart with a beautiful delivery. Thakur looked the only danger to Armagh but he was clean bowled by Doyle attempting a big hit leaving Cregagh crippled at 36-7. The end came relatively quickly when Jackson edged through to McCarter off Bullick; Kulkarni returned to have Harris plumb lbw before the stranded Cregagh skipper Watt tried to smash Bullick out of the ground but only succeeded in chipping the ball to Kulkarni. Bullick had bowled an excellent spell of relentless accurate bowling, being rewarded with four wickets for twelve runs in just short of his ten overs. Cregagh had been dismissed for a mere 44 runs in an almost faultless Armagh display.

With such a meagre target to pursue; the Armagh openers could have been forgiven for taking things lightly but Colin Russell and Michael Villiers were determined to see the team home without any loss. Indeed they were content to see out some accurate swing bowling from McCormick in particular but regularly rotating the strike with good running between the wickets. As the bowlers tired, Russell cut loose to comfortably take Armagh to victory by the maximum ten wicket margin, finishing with 36 not out.

Kulkarni was delighted with the Armagh effort on the day. “We bowled a good line and put constant pressure on the Cregagh batting and they were unable to resist. Reggie (Stinson) bowled well for us again then Harry Doyle got the big wicket of Thakur. David (Bullick) was irresistible and deserved his four wickets. I told the guys that a ten wicket win was important for us and I was glad that Colin and Michael were able to make it happen.

Armagh v Cregagh

20 June 2009

The Mall

NCU Section 3

Result: Armagh win by ten wickets

Points: Armagh 4 Cregagh 0

Toss: Armagh

Umpires: Keith Calvin, Kevin McConville

Scorers: WB Weir,

CREGAGH

P Walker run out (R Stinson) 6

I Kerr b R Stinson 0