Hanna's dot balls keep Cloney in Junior Cup

Muckamore II 175

Donacloney win by three runs

DONACLONEY entertained Muckamore II in the first round of the Junior Cup at the Factory Ground.

Donacloney won the toss and elected to bat in near perfect batting conditions.

With the absence of a few regulars Colin Hylands was promoted to open the batting along side Stevie Hanna. They shared an opening wicket stand of 67, with Hylands in particular dominating the Muckamore attack.

He hammered nine boundaries before finally being dismissed in the 17th over for a belligerent 47. Lyness Topping followed quickly being adjudged LBW.

At 72-2, Matthew Lyttle came to the crease and began to build an innings. He and Hanna added a further 37 runs before Hanna was caught at the wicket for a determined 31.

Club veteran Davie Marshall came to the crease and quickly added 30 runs with Lyttle before he was clean bowled by a Shane Warne-like delivery from the Muckamore leg spinner. A minor collapse followed leaving the Cloney reeling at 143-7.

At the other end young Lyttle was batting with composure that defied his youth. He marshalled the tail and added another valuable 30 runs before he was dismissed for an excellent 46.

The Cloney were all dismissed for 177 in the 48th over. They knew that they would have to bowl and field well to progress to the second round.

Some loose bowling allowed Muckamore off to a good start in their reply. The introduction of McClure had immediate effect removing Quigley’s off stump in his first over. Hanna snaffled the other opener with a sharp catch off his own bowling but Muckamore continued to score quickly.

After his batting heroics, Lyttle was summoned into the attack and removed the dangerous Thompson (34) via a great juggling catch by Fisher. Fisher and Lyttle removed 2 further wickets leaving Muckamore requiring a further 57 runs to win with 5 wickets in hand.

Stand in skipper Hanna turned to Marshall whose second spell proved decisive, taking 2-5 and leaving Muckamore 151-7 and the match finely balanced.

Van Der Merve seemed to take the match away from Donacloney with some fine hitting but McClure and Hanna struck back leaving Muckamore needing eight runs to win with the final batsmen at the crease.

As the tension rose around the Factory Ground, Van Der Merve hit Hanna for an enormous six at the beginning of the 43rd over to leave Muckamore only needing three runs to win. With the match seemingly over, Hanna bowled three dot balls and clean bowled Van Der Merve with his fifth ball to complete a fine win for the home team.

Donacloney would like to thank Sidney Alexander for sponsoring Saturday’s matchball. Next week, Donacloney play promotion chasing Templepatrick while they will face Carrickfergus II in the next round of the cup.