Armagh V BISC

Armagh V BISC 4/07/09

Armagh battle the elements to beat plucky BISC

Armagh kept their unbeaten run going to remain at the top of Ulster Bank League Section Two after a hard fought seven wicket victory against Belfast International on The Mall. The start of July traditionally sees the onset of noon starts in the NCU, but the steady rainfall around lunchtime meant that a reduced forty over fixture could only start just before 2pm as the teams braved the damp conditions. Armagh won the toss and invited BISC to bat first and Reg Stinson bowled a superb spell of seam bowling conceding only six runs in his eight over allocation, including a cracker of a ball that moved away to take the edge of Chandra through to McCarter behind the stumps. David Bullick proved a thorn in the side of the BISC middle order as his accuracy picked him up four wickets as the opposition looked to attack him. Bhaganna edged to Lloyd Hamilton in the gully, Yousuf chipped to Colin Russell at cover while Patra and Tongbram were clean bowled. Shetty was playing a fine attacking knock for BISC, including a huge six off Bullick that almost cleared the sightscreen, but he was unfortunate to be bowled by a full delivery from Kulkarni. Stuart Lester got on the act as he had the injured Gork swiftly stumped by Gareth McCarter and when Raj was bowled BISC looked doomed at 100-8. They were indebted to Sharma and Upendar who profited from some inaccurate Armagh bowling to add a quick forty run stand before Kulkarni caught the former off his own bowling. Russell stepped in to bowl some accurate overs at the death as BISC closed on 146-9 from their forty over allocation.

The skies had now cleared into a decent afternoon as Armagh looked to chase down a tricky enough target against their enthusiastic opponents but Russell and Michael Villiers both looked in decent touch early on and scored relatively freely on both sides of the wicket. Russell had smashed a huge “six” off Shetty before being dismissed caught behind off Tongbram’s first ball. This brought Phil Doyle to the crease and the left hander looked in good touch to continue his recent improved form. The BISC bowlers seemed to struggle against the right-left hand partnership of Villiers and Doyle, bowling a number of wide deliveries. Villiers had moved to a well played 36 before edging Yousuf behind where Patra made no mistake. Doyle would also depart for 31 as the margin of victory grew closer as he gave Shetty a deserved vicket courtesy of a good catch by Sharma. Armagh would have no further alarms though as they sealed a seven wicket win with Kulkarni and Hamilton not out at the end. BISC are a decent side, and if they could add a touch of discipline to their undoubted talent then they could produce some shocks in this division.

BISC

S Patra *+ b Bullick 22

C Chandra c McCarter + b R Stinson 8

P Bhaganna c Hamilton b Bullick 1

I Yousuf c Russell b Bullick 14

M Shetty b Kulkarni * 29

R Tongbram b Bullick 1

V Gork st McCarter + b Lester 8

V Raj b Lester 0

S Sharma c&b Kulkarni * 28

V Upendar not out 13

S Goli not out 3

Extras (b 2, lb 3, nb 1, w 13, p ) 19

Total (9 wkts, 40.0 overs) 146

FOW: 1-14 (C Chandra) 2-25 (P Bhaganna) 3-49 (I Yousuf) 4-76 (S Patra *+) 5-78 (R Tongbram) 6-99 (M Shetty) 7-99 (V Gork) 8-100 (V Raj) 9-140 (S Sharma)

R Stinson 8 5 6 1

CP Kulkarni * 8 1 27 2

M Stinson 5 1 31 0

D Bullick 8 1 41 4

S Lester 8 1 17 2

A Bratten 1 0 12 0

C Russell 2 0 7 0

ARMAGH

C Russell c Patra *+ b Tongbram 27

M Villiers c Patra *+ b Yousuf 36

P Doyle c Sharma b Shetty 31

CP Kulkarni * not out 8