Bangors Winning Start Continues
3 min read
Bangor were at home again to a Drumaness SK side that come the end of the season will be there or there abouts in the top spots. So, a win for the seasiders would go a long way to ensuring early momentum built up so far in the season remained.
Bangor lost the toss and were inserted in on a soft but fair pitch and got off to a good start as openers Keenan & McMillan saw off the new ball and the opening bowlers. Star player Gelston came on to bowl and picked up the opening wicket of Keenan and one brought two when Kuda edged behind and Drumaness were rampant. Further wickets fell of skipper Parker and Patrick McMillan who played well for his for his 47 off 82 balls to leave Bangor in a spot of bother at 80-4 with 15 overs to go still.
The two new batsmen would need to navigate their way through tricky waters, but Adam McCusker has the kind of gritty, fight for everything mentality you’d need for the challenge and Mark English (the talisman) has been there, done that and got the t-shirt (which he got for free knowing his business acumen). The two men began to slowly get Bangor into the contest and wrestle back control as their 50-run partnership came up in the 33rd over. The platform was set to get some big runs as the sun began to peek out from the gloom, a fitting & timely metaphor!
55 more runs would come in the final 6 overs as the visiting bowlers struggled to contain the Bangor batsmen as English and McCusker finished on 69 and 40 not out respectively, a brilliant 106 run partnership which gave Bangor the momentum heading into the innings break.
Barra Best’s BBQ / factor 50 weather prediction had finally turned up in the BT20 area and a glorious day broke out as Bangor took to the field confident in defending their 186 runs amassed. Walton and Bates took the new ball and both men kept things tight with 35 runs coming from the opening 10 overs although for Bangor no crucial breakthrough. Numerous ‘almost chances’ came and went especially for Josh Bates who bowled brilliantly down the hill and will feel hard done by not to pick up a few wickets in his 7 over spell.
The game entered a crucial phase with Drumaness’s best batsmen still on the park and Bangor’s change bowlers came into the attack knowing they needed to take a wicket soon before the game started to slip away. Kuda Samunderu picked up the wicket of Cunningham who whilst struggled on the day is still a dangerous batsman to a smart catch by skipper Parker.
The drinks break came and went with the score on 72-1 and the game firmly in the balance for either team to claim the win. Patterson and Pyper continued to keep things tight but to no avail in the wickets column leading to Parker returning to Kuda to make the big breakthrough of Gelston who had passed 50 by this point. Enter Kuda, the man for the big occasion, to bowl Gelston and Bangor were rampant with the score on 99-2 and 14 overs to go.
George Prince had to bide his time with the ball but when he got his chance he immediately struck in his first over and the classic one brings two came into effect in his next over with Walsh out as he edged behind to the grateful hands of McMillan. Bangor began to assert their dominance over the visitors with the score not moving much and wickets continuing to tumble as Kuda and Walton ended on 3-12 and 2-31 off their 8 overs each.
Four overs to go and Drumaness still needed 47 runs to win, which isn’t beyond the realms, skipper Parker intrusted Prince with the ball to bowl at the end and with a mixture of slower balls thrown in, picked up two crucial wickets in the 37th over to leave Bangor one wicket away. Prince duly followed up in the 39th over with Keenan taking a smart catch and Prince finished with figures 5-41 as Bangor prevailed by 27 runs at a sun kissed Upritchard Park.
Bangor keep their 100% start to the season intact as they move on to cup action at Lurgan on Thursday before heading on the road to BISC in the league next weekend.
