Greystones win promotion in final league tie
GREYSTONES CRICKET men’s second XI welcomed Dundalk CC to Druids Glen for what would be the deciding game of the 2017 season for Division 10 in Leinster cricket.
After 13 games the battle for honours and promotion to Division 9 would come down to the final day with less than one per cent point separating the two sides at the top of the table.
The game was reduced to 30 overs before a ball had been bowled with a forecast of heavy rain in the late afternoon.
Manpreet Singh, Greystones second captain, won the toss and had no hesitation in sending the opposition in.
Runs proved hard to get with good line and length bowling from the Greystones attack led by the skipper himself and supported by M Potts 3 for 27 and Brian Pappas 2 for 31 and S McGrath 1 for 20.
Dundalk struggled to get on top of any bowler in the line up and set a score of 141 to win after the allotted 30 overs.
The Dundalk supporters were happy with their batsmens’ total but local knowledge would have said that they were a good few runs short. Would 4.7 runs an over be enough to take the Cup?
Greystones’ reply started poorly with the loss of its first wicket early on with P Daniel out for a duck with the score on just 6. But this brought together the Australian pair of J Fitzsimon 56 and Matt Green 63 not out to the crease who blasted the ball to all areas of the ground and saw Greystones safely home with 6 overs to spare. The pair showed no mercy in the reply and sent spectators running for cover on several occasions with the ball being hit into the stands with ease.
It has been a great season for Manpreet Singh with both bat and ball who was at the time of printing leading the Leinster cricket averages for all levels of cricket as an all rounder taking more than 30 wickets and scoring 875 runs in the season.
Greystones’ ground at Druids Glen gets closed down now for winter with the pre season starting up again in early February 2018 indoors before braving the weather again in early April to do it all again.
New members of all levels, male and female always welcome. For more see grey stones cricket. com