Seniors go down to Cork County who remain their top spot in Premier Division
KERRY Seniors made a start on their recovery following their poor performance against Galway in the Clear Currency National Cup last week - but it wasn’t enough to prevent Cork County 1st squad from consolidating their position at the top of the Munster Cricket Premier Division.
Cork batted first and probably regretted that in the fourth over, when Usman took three wickets (W-W-4-dot-dot-W) to transform the visitors’ decent start of 16 for none off three overs, to 20 for 3 wickets off four overs. And just a few overs later Cork were in even deeper trouble at 27 for 4, but when Cormac Hassett joined veteran Rob Duggan the visitors started to regain control. Indeed, Hasset compiled a brilliant 90 including thirteen 4s and a 6. Kerry though, in spite of dropping vital catches, kept the pressure on; once Duggan and Hassett were removed, the Kerry bowling attack drove home the advantage and closed out the Cork innings in the 46th over to limit them to a below par 201.
Kerry started well in their chase and got to 100 for the loss of 4 wickets in the 15th over. That left them with 35 overs to score 102 more runs to win. When Nabeel had Owais caught for 20 the score was 124 off 24 overs - Kerry still needing another 78 off 26 overs - the home side was still looking in good shape to secure a much needed victory; but instead of ‘steady as she goes’ - each new batsman went for glory and all too quickly, perished in their haste. Spin twins Nabeel Anjum and Dermot Carey asked too many questions of Kerry’s lower order batsmen and finished with 3 wickets apiece.
From a promising start, Kerry lost their last 5 wickets in a mere 8 overs adding just 43 runs and leaving them 35 runs shy of the winning post. CORK COUNTY 1sts: 201 all out (46 overs), Cormac Hassett 90; Rob Duggan 35; Usman Khan 8-0-49-4; Kashif Khan 8.3-3-15-3 beat
KERRY 1sts: 167 all out (31.2 overs), Khurram Iqbal 35; Arslan Anwar 27; Azeem Khan 26; Nabeel Anjum 7-0-35-3; Demot Carey 9-0-47-3
NEIGHBOURS Limerick created another piece of history on Sunday beating visitors Knockharley (Co Meath) to join Galway in the Semi-finals of the Clear Currency Irish National Cup. Limerick’s total of 260 proved well beyond the reach of the squad from Meath, who were all out for 147, to hand Limerick a 113 run victory. So, two Munster teams in the All-Ireland semi-finals which are scheduled for 12th August, and the big question…will they be drawn against each other?
FIXTURES
SATURDAY, JULY 28 Munster Division 1 County Kerry 2nds v Cork Harlequins 2nds in the Oyster Oval SUNDAY, JULY 29 Munster Division 2 Cork Harlequins 3rds v Kerry 3rds in Farmers Cross
Munster Senior Cup Semi-final
Limerick 1sts v Kerry 1sts in Adare