Kerry 3 into Munster Minor Cup semi-finals

Mick Jones

AT the Oyster Oval on Sunday, John Roux lead the way with a captain’s knock of 66 (including eight 4s) as Kerry go through to the semi-finals of the Munster Minor Cup. Last year Kerry’s Third squad convincingly defeated UCC in the Munster Minor Cup Final; the current champions are clearly hungry to repeat their success.

Visitors Cork Harlequins took to the field first. Batting for Kerry, Craig Bainbridge and Junaid Khalid both went cheaply, but Sean Rutland put down anchor, making a solid 33 before being trapped lbw by John Russell. The partnership between Imran Sayed (45) and captain John Roux (66) laid the foundation for setting the deceptively tricky target of 208 for the loss of nine wickets in the allotted 40 overs. Bowling for Quins, John Russell picked up 3 for 29 while John Buss and Adam Hickey picked up two wickets apiece.

Quins started their chase purposefully, the scoreboard read 32 for 2 when Dave Peet (52) and Hickey (23) combined in a partnership that Kerry struggled to break. Although the home squad ground fielding was pretty good there were at least half a dozen catches dropped that should have been taken. Kerry were fortunate then, that although Hickey and Peet took the score on to 98 for 3, the tight bowling lines from the home team bowlers meant the visitors had fallen so far behind the run rate, they found themselves with only 10 overs left to score nearly 110 more runs to reach their target. Liam Edwards and John Russell tried to lift the tempo for Quins, but they were too far behind; at the end of the 40th over they had only 163 runs for 4 wickets on the board, so Kerry won by 45 runs.

Best bowling figures for Kerry belonged to Junaid with 2 for 41, but though Rutland and Roux also took a wicket each, credit should go to the whole bowling attack who never let the Quins batters get on top. Special mentions go to Mourad Shah and Craig Bainbridge who bowled two maiden overs in their respective spells. Umpire Bert Daley gave the ‘Man of the Match’ honours to Adam Hickey for his perseverance with the bat and for picking up 2 wickets for just 31 runs off his full 8 overs; with youth on his side, Hickey is a serious cricketing prospect for the future.

In the Munster Junior T20 Bash, a three-way round robin event on Saturday, Kerry and Limerick both beat Galway and advance to the Finals Day next Saturday.

On Sunday, the senior squad also progressed to their Finals Day next week (also at the Mardyke). Although Limerick took revenge for the loss to Kerry at last week’s event, Galway failed to travel and drop out by default.

Meanwhile, North Kerry notched their first win of the season, beating Waterford by 4 wickets, with the experienced E Garczynski leading the way with a hard fought 24.

FIXTURES

Saturday, July 1

Junior T20 Bash Finals Day in The Mardyke

Sunday, July 2

Senior T20 Blast Finals Day in The Mardyke