Cricket season begins for Sligo

County Sligo Cricket Club suffered a home defeat in the rain- affected All- Ireland National Cup match vs Midleton Cricket Club at Sligo Cricket Ground, Sligo Races.

The Sligo captain won the toss and elected to bat which could not be proved a favourable decision in a very wet and breezy day.

Midleton’s pacey bowlers took full advantage of the breezy conditions by bowling inswings and outswings deliveries to disturb the Sligo Batsmen.

Sligo lost it opening batsman in the second over but the next two batsmen managed to score 44 runs in the first 10 overs thanks to the top scorer Ghulam Nabi for his 25 runs innings.

After this partnership, Sligo batting collapsed and no batsman could stay on the crease and the whole team was bowled out on a low total of 81 in 22.2 overs.

Thanks to Dean Wilson of Midleton Cricket Club for his tremendous bowling performance which ripped through Sligo’s strong batting line up by taking 6 wickets in 6.2 over for 20 runs.

In reply, Midleton started with no pressure and scored freely till the hide and seek of clouds started, suddenly heavy rain interrupted and stopped the game for approximately 30 minutes.

Soon the clouds disappeared, umpires restarted the game but just after a few over more showers came and umpires decided to go off the field once again.

The umpires used Duckworth- Lewis calculator to re- set the target. But it remained the same as time and overs were lost.

After resuming the match, Sligo took two wickets but it was a late call and Midleton comfortably chased their target of 82 in less than 15 overs and go through the next round.