TERENURE 5: 124 ALL OUT off 37.1 overs
Batting: M.Irfan 45 Aditya 36
H2 Bowling: S.Hubert 3-12-2 J.Khan 4-1-6-1 D.Foster 7-2-11-1 B.McAllister 5-12-1
M.Hodgson 5-17-1 D.Drumm 5-24-1 K.Hodson 4.1-28-1 A.Syed 3-1-9-0
HALVERSTOWN 2: 128 for 2 off 18.1 overs
Batting: J. Khan 101* J.Hodgson 6* M.Hodgson 3
T5 Bowling: Abdullah 7.1-38-2 Sahabit 6-2-11-0 Shazaib 4-66-0
I wanted revenge against Terenure after they beat us in the 2022 Adamstown T20 Cup Final. I didn’t expect quite this much revenge! To be fair Terenure arrived with just 9 players, most of them youths. However the story of this game was all about one man: Junaid Khan. I don’t think any team at our level could have have coped with his devastating batting power on the day. His first century for Halverstown, the first century by anyone in the club since 2019 and what a century. 8 sixes and 4 fours contributed to 101 not out off just 59 balls. At the other end Jim Hodgson stuck to his task doggedly: keeping Junaid company and giving him the strike as much as possible. His 6 not out off 45 balls testified as to how well he did that.
Terenure won the toss and elected to bat, saving me the trouble of putting them in if I had won. We started well: Ahsan took a good catch off David Foster to make it 5 for 1. However, they had 71 runs on the board before a second wicket fell in the 21st over. They were batting slowly, but steadily. We rotated bowlers fairly often and finally wickets began to fall after the partnership of Irfan and Aditya was broken by Junaid and Sam, the latter’s wicket being another good Ahsan catch. The younger Terenure players fell to a succession of 5 bowled outs, with just one further catch- Matt taking a particularly fine one from my bowling.
Terenure’s 124 was more than we expected so there was a frisson of nerves about our start. Matt was bowled by the impressive Abdullah for 3 and Mohsin fell LBW to him also. 10 for 2. But after that it was the Junaid Jamboree. He survived two early scares from Abdullah, almost playing on, but after that nothing could stop him. Seven of his sixes were against Shazaib, who conceded over 20 runs twice, and one against Abdullah who struggled towards the end of his spell against a rampant Junaid. As Kevin Hodson said, it was a privilege to watch that innings. A wonderful display, with bat and ball by Junaid, an a good all round bowling display by the team. Thanks to Sean for the excellent scorebook, which makes reports easy!
Des Drumm 6/7/24