NORTH KILDARE: 113 for 1 off 20 overs
Batting: J.Habington 20* L.Tobin 20* S.Butler 20* D.Galbraith 13*
Bowling: A. Clayton 1-0-3-2 A.Quinn 2-0-5-2 Badahur 2-0-8-2 D.Galbraith 2-0-5-1
R.Machin 1-0-5-1 J.Habington 1-0-6-1 K.Byrne 1-0-6-0 A.Quayle 1-0-10-0
OAKS: 52 All out off 12 overs
Batting: T.Gayle 15 D.Drumm 5 P.Carroll3 G.O’Shea 3
Bowling: N.O’Reilly 1-0-5-1 A.Barber 2-0-8-0 G.O’Shea 2-0-10-0 P.O’Siochru 2-0-11-0 T.Gayle 1-0-6-0 J.Kirby 2-0-15-0 D.Drumm 2-0-20-0 S.Hayes 2-0-20-0 P.Carroll 1-0-11-0
Niall O’Reilly said that reading my report of the RTE match was more depressing than actually playing in it. With this in mind I have looked for Reasons To Be Cheerful (RTBC) in a performance where we again scored 52 runs, but which included 2 more extras than last week. To be fair, though, there were definitely some RTBC.
Our dreams of doing a double over our Kildare rivals were always more hope than expectation. This was the same Oaks team that played RTE but minus its 2019 player of the year, Brian McAllister, and opening bat Stuart Conroy. It was always going to be tough. In the event it was a reasonable performance and Terry Gayle, drafted in to play his first game of the year, proved to be our Man of the Match.
We won the toss again. RTBC1. Learning from last week, we fielded first so that we might get more of a game out of the night. However, like last week, their opening batsmen proved too strong. Despite putting our more experienced bowlers out first, their opening 3 batsmen- captain John Habington, Tobin and Butler- all scored 20 not out. I always record the bowling in descending order: from best figures to, well, less best. Towards the “ less best” end you may note our more experienced bowlers by enlarge. We did at least take a wicket this week- by Niall, who clean bowled Byrne in an excellent over. His first ever wicket! RTBC 2. Indeed there were several good bowling performances, including Andy, Gerard, Patrick and Terry. Our fielding work was good, most notably Steve Rix and Patrick in the deep who not only ran well but had some outstanding returns. Niall’s feet were prominent too in helping to stop the run flow! Our fielding was RTBC 3.They finished their 15x 8 ball overs on 113- not too bad from our perspective: RTBC 4.
Batting, though was to prove our Achilles heel again.Terry’s stellar 15 was definitely RTBC 5. I was next highest scorer with 5, which tells you all you need to know about the rest our batting. Six players scored 1, though Cecil’s was not out- and it is never easy coming at 11 with a batting collapse ahead of you and only facing a ball or two! Some were unlucky: Patrick fell to a very good caught- bowled by Clayton (who took a stunning 2 wickets for 3 runs) and Paddy started well before being caught from Quinn’s bowling, who took an impressive 2 for 5.Gerard looked comfortable but was then bowled by a looping ball from the evergreen Robin Machin. No one got a duck, oddly enough: RTBC 6. Overall, there were positive signs- and most players enjoyed the evening despite the result; RTBC no. 7!