First Eleven Second Best to Dominant Cregagh Team
2 min read
Bangor fell to a comprehensive defeat at the hands of high flying Cregagh by 95 runs at Uprichard Park on Saturday.Cregagh will have designs on playing in the Premier League next season, while rebuilding for the future will continue for Bangor. The coming weeks will be vital for Adam McCusker’s men with four away matches now to follow.
Bangor won the toss and elected to bowl with rain threatening the North Down skies. It was almost an ideal start for the home side when a mix up between openers Hunter and Moore saw a shy at the stumps of the very first ball of the innings. The attempt missed narrowly and Cregagh had been given a life, which they proceeded to exploit readily. The experienced opening pair looked comfortable against the Bangor bowling and started to build their innings. They got to 20 effortlessly before strike bowler Chris Walton crashed the ball into the stumps of Moore. When McCormick snicked off to McLarnonbehind the stumps in the same over Bangor were well on top in the match.
The Cregagh skipper Johnston joined Hunter at the crease commencing what would be the match winning partnership. Steadily, the visitors began to repair the early damage done to their innings and began to build. They did nothing flashy, putting away the occasional stray ball and running well between the wickets. The steady flow of runs contributed to the pressure on the Bangor bowlers who were unable to make any further inroads into the Cregagh side. Conditions had worsened meaning that Bangor were now bowling in rain that had not been anticipated. Cregagh took full advantage of the conditions and increased their run rate throughout the innings.
Having come together at 23 for the loss of two wickets, Hunter and Johnston took the score to 157 before Johnston holed out to Walton on the long off boundary in the 17th over. It was a fine innings by the Cregagh Captain and put his team in a fantastic position. The visiting side continued to hammer home their advantage and finished on an impressive 199 for the loss of six wickets, with Paddy English claiming two and two run outs. Hunter finished on 74 and Bangor knew that they would be up against it in the second innings.
This indeed proved to be the case as Bangor wilted in the face of the challenge in front of them. The Bangor innings never really got going and the loss of key wickets at key times meant that Bangor were never able to keep up with the run rate and the match was over as a contest very quickly. After a fine opening partnership between Patterson and Nixon, both scoring 14 and 17 respectively, some lusty hitting from Kris King was the only meaningful contribution from the middle order. A fine 10th wicket partnership of 36 between George Prince and Josh Bates was enough to save the 100 run defeat. Bangor will be looking for more in the return to 50 over cricket next week.
