Kerry Junior squad win Munster T20 Bash

IT would take a brave man to hazard a guess whether Kerry’s patchy form in the T20 format is a local difficulty - or simply down to the unpredictable nature of cricket’s youngest and brashest fashion. A fortnight ago, the Senior squad fell at the semi-final stage in the Munster T20 Blast, and just last week the Minor squad fell in the first round in their T20 competition. So interestingly, after a lacklustre season for the Juniors in 2017 it was the Kerry second squad who found that extra hunger needed to win a Regional Final in cricket’s quick-fire format.

The Munster Junior T20 Bash Finals day consisted of three matches, all played out at the Marydyke, Cork on Saturday 23rd, Limerick seconds comfortably dispatched Cork 2nds in the morning semi-final and Kerry 2nds faced Midleton 1st squad (re-aligned in the ‘Junior’ divisions following a disappointing 2017 for them) in the afternoon encounter.

The second semi-final provided classic cricketing drama. Midleton chose to field first, but the Kerry batsmen revelled in the glorious sunshine and made hay in fine style. Opener Bilal (50), and Awais (n.o.49) batting at three, were the chief architects of a final score of 163 for 4 from the full 20 overs. At any level of cricket, a run chase at more than 8 runs an over is a daunting prospect. There were useful contributions from Majid(21) and Gavin Gibson(19), but Rob Smyth was the hero for Midleton; he whacked six 6s and six 4s in a classy and undefeated 83 off 54 balls, taking the East Cork men tantalisingly close to a Final berth. With Midleton needing 14 off the last over, Smyth smacked a six off the first ball before panic took over; in spite of that though, with one ball left, all three possible out-comes were in play. Showing nerves of steel for Kerry, John Roux brilliantly landed the final ball in the block-hole to prevent a winning six-shot, Midleton scrambled two runs but remained 4 shy of the winning target! Kerry were in the Final, but only had a 30 minute turnaround before facing Limerick in the decider.

In the final, Kerry again batted first and again scored at better than 8 runs per over, 169 scored this time - setting Limerick a target of 170 to win. Again Bilal (30) and Awais (50) were top scorers but Qassim chipped in with a crucial 29. Asif Shahab was the stand out bowler for Limerick finishing with excellent figures of 4-0-29-4. Opening the batting chase for Limerick, Arsalan Khalid(44) and Varsh Shetty(37) set off at a rate of knots and had 66 chalked up by the 8th over. With only one wicket down, Limerick were well on course, Kerry looked stunned, but when skipper Sean Rutland came on to bowl the dynamic changed totally. Limerick only scored 13 from the next 5 overs and suddenly found themselves needing 90 runs to win with only 7 overs left. The pressure proved too much, wickets tumbled through a series of run-outs and with the 20 overs complete Limerick were 36 runs short on 134 for 6. Kerry 2nds, now 2018 Munster Junior T20 champions!

Munster Junior Bash Semi-final

Kerry 163 - 4 (20 overs) Beat Midleton 159 - 7 (20 overs) by 4 runs

Munster Junior Bash Final

Kerry 169 - 6 (20 overs) beat Limerick 133 - 6 (20 overs) by 36 runs Saturday, June 30

Munster Division 1 - County Kerry 2nds v Tipperary County 1sts in the Oyster Oval Sunday, July 1

Munster Premier Division - County Kerry 1sts v County Galway 1sts in the Oyster Oval