Positives to Take Forward Despite a Disappointing Weekend for the 1XI
5 min read
Bangor Vs Donacloney
Bangor fell to a disappointing defeat by 46 runs to Donacloney in their first home match of the season on Saturday. In the first home match of the season Bangor were second best to a well drilled Donacloney side who had comprehensively beaten Muckamore in week one. Adam McCusker’s young side will have learnt much from the defeat and will now hopefully press on and improve in the weeks to come.
Donacloney won the toss and elected to bat on a beautifully prepared Uprichard wicket. Bangor started brightly with a tight over from Taj Onyekwelu before Chris Walton got the break, clean bowling the dangerous Lyttle. When Chris Kennedy suffered the same fate again at the hands of Walton two overs later, Bangor had the visitors rolling on 21 for two. Josh Bates backed up Walton’s early blitz with a wicket of his own in the 7th over. Donacloney were 31 for three with seven overs gone, Bangor were well on top.
The fourth wicket pairing of Aaron Kennedy and Ryan Matthews proved to be the key partnership of the match. Together they began to rebuild the faltering Donacloney innings by not doing anything special at all. They did all the basics right, were patient in waiting for the bad deliveries and ran well between the wickets. The frustration in the home side began to grow and the two batsmen seemed to sense this. Despite this frustration, Bangor were still in the match as Donacloney had only reached 79 after 14 overs.
A freak incident in the 15th over changed the whole complexion of the match. The final ball of the 15th over was called a no ball and cannoned straight into the helmet behind wicket keeper Ricky McLarnon. This incident ended up costing Bangor seven runs, but it seemed also to be a key turning point in the match as the Bangor side began to lose their focus in the field. From this moment onwards Donacloney held all the momentum in the match. By the end of their innings Donacloney had reached 145 for the loss of only five wickets with Kennedy playing a starring role with a fine unbeaten 67.
This total was always going to be a challenge for Bangor but they could not have started their chase in better fashion. Paddy English was in belligerent mood smashing three boundaries in the first over, the addition of four leg byes meant that Bangor were on 16 for no loss after only one over. It was great to see Mark Nixon back at the other end and he would have enjoyed this opening. Tragically, it was cut short when the hero of the Donacloney batting innings, Aaron Kennedy, took a ridiculously good catch diving forward at deep cover point to take the ball an inch above the ground.When Adam McCusker fell later in the same over things were beginning to look bleak for the home side.
Despite spirited innings from Mark Nixon, Taj Onyekwelu and Chris Walton, Bangor were only able to amass 99 runs in response. This meant that Donacloney won comfortably by 46 runs.
Bangor vs Templepatrick (T20 Trophy)
Bangor fell to the second defeat of the weekend with a narrow loss by eight runs to Templepatrick at UprichardPark on Sunday. It was a case of so close but yet so far as Bangor played brilliantly for the majority of the match only to come up tantalisingly short in the end. Although this means that Bangor remain without a win from three matches this season, the team will know that the win is not far away and when that happens it is highly likely that the team will be unstoppable.
Templepatrick won the toss and elected to bat on another fantastically prepared Uprichard pitch. Incensed from the previous day’s defeat Taj Onyekwelu struck in only his second over getting the bemused Greer to drive the ball on the up into the receptive hands of Will Simpson in the covers.This breakthrough did not initially bring further wickets but Bangor began to gain a stranglehold on the match. Bates and Prince continued the fine work of Walton and Onyekwelubowling tightly and being backed up by sharp fielding from the men in blue.
Prince was next to strike, trapping Kane in front for a paltry eight. When Prince affected the run out of the other opener Thompson, Bangor had the visitors reeling on 40 for one after ten overs. Bangor learnt from the previous day’s shortcomings and kept the pressure on. The second half of the innings followed the same high standards as the first and Bangor thwarted Templepatrick at every opportunity as the visitors crawled to 88 for the loss of seven wickets, with Bates and Onyekwelu picking up two wickets a piece. Bangor would have been delighted with keeping Templepatrick to such a low score and they were strong favourites for the second innings.
English and Patterson took to the crease with happy hearts looking to get Bangor off to a fast start. Sadly it was not to be as Templepatrick pace man Ross Bryans had different ideas. English was caught behind with the score on one. When Adam McCusker and Taj Onyekwelu became his second and third victims in only the third over of the match, Bangor were in severe trouble at 11 for three. Cometh the hour, cometh the man as Ricky McLarnon entered the fray. Alongside Patterson, he painstakingly repaired the Bangor innings, caressing the ball around the infield and punishing the bad delivery. As Bangor passed 50 they had fought their way back to being favourites again.
The spin of Busby and Kane began to turn the match in favour of the visitors again. Initially, they stemmed the steady flow of runs that had been coming easy to Patterson and McLarnon. When the former was trapped in front of his stumps, the steady flow of runs became a steady flow of wickets. King and Simpson followed quickly. When Walton was given caught out having hit the ball into the ground, you got the feeling that it wasn’t going to be Bangor’s day. When McLarnon fell for a beautiful 32, easily the best innings of the match, Bangor had slumped to 67 for eight. Despite some flamboyance and Caribbean flair from Pyper, Prince and Bates, the returning Bryans took the remaining wickets leaving Bangor eight runs shy.
There are better days ahead.
Templepatrick 88/7 (20 Overs)
Gibson 21
Bates – 4-1-8-2
Bangor 80 all out (18.4 Overs)
McLarnon 32
R Bryans – 3.5-1-13-5
