Back to Back T20 Bowl Champions
3 min read
Friday night’s final of the Lagan Valley Steel T20 Bowl took place at Upritchard Park between BISC and favourites Bangor.
Bangor went into the showpiece final as defending champions, but they knew that in the shortened form of T20 cricket, the prospect of back to back titles would have to be earned. Bangor is a side that is unquestionably on the up with a group of talented players who have made strong progress this season, as evidenced by young stars McMillan, Skelly, McNaught and Rayner in their match-night squad.
BISC won the toss, elected to bat and made a strong start in the early powerplay overs, particularly through the impressive Virat Gaur. Rob Van Harte, one of Bangor’s veterans and a key presence this year, regained control of the game with exceptional figures of 4 overs, 1 wicket for 14 runs. Rob has been Bangor’s talisman on and off the pitch where his contribution to the club is leaving a lasting legacy. On the pitch, Rob bowls with skill, discipline and consistency week in, week out and it is a bowler such as Van Harte that creates team wins. As usual, Rob was the glue and unsung hero behind Bangor’s success. As they have done on countless occasions this year, George Prince and Will Simpson built the scoreboard pressure with figures of 4-0-18-0 and 4-0-20-2 respectively. Bangor’s left armer, Chris Walton was exceptional taking 3 for 19 and ripping the heart out of the BISC top order. Nobody would have been falling asleep in the clubhouse during Walton’s impressive spell. Sam McMillan took the key wicket of Virat Gaur as the Seasiders restricted BISC to 110 in their allotted 20 overs.
There was plenty for the bowlers with the new ball on what was an excellent cricket wicket so as Bangor began their innings in gloomy conditions, they knew that this was not a forgone conclusion. Vishwanatha Urs removed the league’s best batsman, Sam McMillan, second ball with a cracking delivery. To get a player of McMillan’s calibre gave BISC huge belief in the favourable conditions. Mark Hutchinson joined captain Andrew Kirkpatrick and the pair added 41 before Hutchinson played a shot that he was quite rightly livid with as he felt that it was an unacceptable bit of cricket from the veteran batsman. Ironically, it turned out to be one of Hutchinson’s best bits of cricket of the year as it brought Van Harte to the crease. The South African premier league player gave the cup final crowd a glimpse of his batting prowess. Such has been Bangor’s dominance this season, Van Harte has had very few opportunities to bat. Early on in the season, he batted beautiful to help Bangor win a key game at Dundrum and Friday night was the same. Van Harte played shots all around the wicket and showed his class scoring 38 off 26 balls. The experienced Kirkpatrick has shown his quality on many occasions this season and he guided his team home with a superb captain’s knock of 44 not out off 28 balls.
Bangor coasted home to win the final by 7 wickets with 34 balls to spare. Celebrations were muted as the Bangor men knew that a win the following day would crown them league champions and secure a satisfying double.
BISC 110-8 (20 overs, V Gaur 36, I Jagadeesh 24, C Walton 3-19, W Simpson 2-20)
Bangor 111-3 (14.2 overs, A Kirkpatrick 44*, M Hutchinson 22, R Van Harte 38)
Bangor beat BISC by 7 wickets
