Exciting Weekend Awaits as the Mens 1XI Dominate Cooke
4 min read
The Men’s 1XI took on Cooke Collegians in the first of their three ‘playoff’ style league games to decide who gets promoted. Bangor headed into this game top of the pile and in a position to gain promotion should they beat Cooke & Dundrum defeated Downpatrick but attention and focus was firmly on the task at hand at a sunny Upritchard Park.
Cooke won the toss and choose to bat with Robbie van Harte and fresh from his ‘warm weather training’ in Spain, Michael Skelly coming down the hill. Bangor got off to a very good but unspectacular start as the run rate was very subdued such was the quality of bowling but yet that first breakthrough was missing. The pressure eventually told and it came in the 6th over as Rakesh edged one behind of Skelly to the grateful gloves of stand in keeper Patrick McMillan.
Things stabilised somewhat for the visitors as they navigated to 28-1 in the 14th over. That all changed though when spinner Will Simpson bamboozled Haider and clipped the top of off stump with a beautiful delivery that turned past the batters outside edge for his first wicket. Will continued his fine form with the ball as he tore through the top of the Cooke batting card dismissing Haseeb bowled and Pandita with Sam McMillan taking a routine catch. This left Cooke in a perilous position of 36-4 in the 18th over and things didn’t get any better. As in the next over, the other opener Gibbons who showed some promise in his score of 18, picked out Myles McNaught at deep square of the bowling of George Prince leaving Cooke 40-5 at drinks.
Bangor were ruthless taking every chance that came their way, showing their dominance and the message at the break was not to let up. That indeed is what happened as the sixth wicket was picked up as Prince found the edge of Shekhar and Patrick McMillan taking his second catch. Prince then picked up his third & fourth wickets, flattening the off stump of Mann for a duck and then forcing Agarwal into an error and Sam McMillan picking up his second catch too, not allowing his Dad any bragging rights at the dinner table whatsoever.
Bangor were rampant at this stage as the game moved very quickly with the score suddenly 55-8 after 23 overs. Things didn’t slow down as Simpson found the outside edge of Saran and van Harte taking an excellent catch to his right at slip to claim it. Simpson in his final over and on cusp of another 5fer setup Humphreys who was providing the rearguard action by delaying the inevitable by farming the strike from the number 11 batter. He eventually fell though bowled by Simpson as Will wheeled away in celebration and took the deserved acclaim of his teammates. Cooke all out for just 61 in the 26th over, a devastating performance with the ball from Bangor.
Bangor potentially knowing the importance of net run rate come the end of the season when all is said and done eyed a quick resolution to the match to boost it up as much as possible. Openers Sam McMillan & Mark Hutchinson confidently strode to the wicket and made short work of the visitors target of 62, wrapping up the innings in just 21 minutes, Hutchinson finishing on 40* and McMillan on 17*.
Such was the quick nature of the match, the crowd at the corporate lunch barely got to see half of the match and so a big thanks to both sets of players and especially Cooke Collegians the visitors who agreed to partake in a 10 over game afterwards to entertain the guests on the balcony enjoying the action in the sun afterwards.
With the 4 points in the bag and the guests entertained, attention then focused 20 odd miles further south as Downpatrick hosted Dundrum. The hosts needed to win to keep their hopes of promotion to Section 1 alive which they duly did which means no promotion for any of the three sides. Bangor though have destiny in their own hands, a win against Dundrum on Saturday 17th at Upritchard Park would confirm the side as champions of Section 2. Before that though, the side have the T20 Bowl Final to contend with against BISC on Friday 16th at Upritchard Park, a title they will be looking to defend. All support is welcome this weekend, excitement is high for a potentially significant one.
Cooke Collegians 61 (25.3 overs, W Simpson 5-13, G Prince 4-19)
Bangor 62-0 (6 overs, M Hutchinson 40*)
Bangor beat Cooke Collegians by 10 wickets
