Ross and Petrus steer EK to victory
Club now look towards landing theT20 Cup
Ross Lyons and Petrus Coetzee delivered the crucial runs to hand East Kilbride Cricket Club the Rowan Cup last Thursday evening.
They beat Ferguslie by seven wickets at Pollok Country Park and will now look to take it one step further and win the national T20 cup for the first time in their history next month.
Scotland international Lyons, in particular, had a fine match as he continued his run of good form to shoot down his opponents.
East Kilbride lost the toss and were asked to bowl first, a minor set back in a final, as one would always like to have the runs on the board in these matches.
But EK knew that a positive start for them would put Ferguslie under pressure and with their very young side EK felt that they were vulnerable.
EK bowled very disciplined in the power play overs and only conceded 29 runs in the first six overs. After the power play, the offspin of Joshua Johnston(1-12) did the trick to make a breakthrough for EK.
A good 65 run partnership was then established by Ferguslie but it was at a run rate that was not hurting EK in any way.
Moneeb Iqbal’s (1-26) legspin broke the vital partnership for EK and they managed to take the momentum with them in the last five overs, as they took five wickets for only 20 runs.
Coetzee(2-19) took two wickets in the last over of the Ferguslie innings to restrict them a below par score of 128-6.
That being said, there is so such thing as an easy run chase in a final.
EK did not make the start they were hoping for, as they lost a wicket early, leaving them 7-1 after 1.1 overs.
Captain Harmanjit Singh and Moneeb Iqbal rebuilt the innings for EK with a solid 40 run partnership before Singh lost his wicket for a well played 22 off 21 balls.
Ross Lyons and Iqbal continued where Singh and Iqbal left off with another 31 run partnership but what was vital from EK’s point of view was that they never fell behind with the required run rate and seemed to be in control.
Iqbal lost his wicket for a well deserved 29, but South African Coetzee and Lyons then got together.
EK needed 51 to win off 40 balls with 7 wickets remaining – and they delivered.
Lyons never let any Ferguslie bowler settle and played a very intelligent innings.
With him hitting the necessary boundaries and rotating the strike, it made EK’s work of chasing the runs a little bit easier.
Lyons and Coetzee got the winning runs in the end with 11 balls to spare in what was an almost perfect chase in the biggest game of all. Lyons ended on 51 not out off 38 balls and Coetzee 19 runs not out off 15 balls.