Armagh V P'down

Armagh V Portadown (30/06/09)

Armagh extend winning run

A sluggish Armagh performance was still enough for the city side to overcome local rivals Portadown in a re-arranged 25over encounter on the Mall on Tuesday night. The hard work put in during a run of three matches in four days had clearly caught up with the Armagh team as their fielding and bowling was not to its usual high standard throughout. On what started as a cloudy and drizzly evening, Armagh captain Charu Kulkarni won another toss and had no doubt in inviting Portadown to bat first. A steady start was ruined when Haddock edged a fairly wide delivery from Reg Stinson through to Gareth McCarter. Kulkarni was too quick for Caddell and removed his middle stump and when David Bullick had Hoey caught by Michael Villiers off his very first ball, Portadown were in trouble. Visiting captain Harris did his best to farm the strike but his partners were finding Armagh’s accuracy hard to deal with. Brown was stumped by McCarter off Bullick before Harris succumbed leg before wicket to a sharp inswinger from Stinson. At this point Stuart Lester entered the attack and few could have envisaged the carnage he would create amongst the Portadown tail-enders. With his very first ball he beat the bat of Adamson who slipped out of his crease and was neatly stumped by McCarter before he could attempt to return. He bowled Morrison with a straight one then had Hammond spectacularly caught at mid-off by a rapidly backtracking David Bullick. Whitfield edged through to McCarter to give Lester a fourth scalp and remarkably the same combination came through again to give Lester quite amazing figures of five wickets for eleven runs, an analysis good enough to lead the Milford Cup standings. Gareth McCarter also completed five dismissals for the innings with three catches and two stumpings, a rare occurrence in the local game.

Portadown’s target of 89 was not an overly impressive one, and when the skies brightened it certainly made Armagh’s task an easier one. Michael Villiers and Colin Russell started the chase with great conviction with a couple of sparkling boundary strikes each but both fell bowled to good deliveries from Hoey. When Kulkarni misread the spinner and fell early Armagh might have wobbled slightly, but fortunately Phil Doyle and Bullick were able to continue their decent form by taking Armagh to the winning line. Doyle looked in fine touch as he top scored with 26, but will have been disappointed to lob a catch with victory in sight. There were no further dramas though as Armagh won their sixth league game in a row to stay clear at the top of the table.

Charu Kulkarni admitted after the game that the efforts of the weekend had drained his side with hard wins at Larne and home to Templepatrick, but to win three games in four days was a big effort from the squad.

Armagh v Portadown

30 June 2009

The Mall

NCU Section 3

Result: Armagh win by 6 wickets

Points: Armagh 4 Portadown 0

Toss: Armagh

Umpires: C Vennard, M McKinley

Scorers: WB Weir,

PORTADOWN

R Caddell b Kulkarni * 5

J Haddock + c McCarter + b R Stinson 2

R Hoey c Villiers b Bullick 12

G Harris * lbw R Stinson 23

D Brown st McCarter + b Bullick 3

G Morrison b Lester 9

L Adamson st McCarter + b Lester 8

A Hammond c Bullick b Lester 6

R Whitfield c McCarter + b Lester 1

P Edgar not out 1

J Haire c McCarter + b Lester 9

Extras (b 4, lb 0, nb 1, w 5, p ) 10

Total (all out, 23.3 overs) 89

FOW: 1-6 (J Haddock +) 2-10 (R Caddell) 3-23 (R Hoey) 4-41 (D Brown) 5-52 (G Harris *) 6-64 (L Adamson) 7-76 (G Morrison) 8-79 (A Hammond) 9-79 (R Whitfield) 10-89 (J Haire)

R Stinson 5 1 26 2

CP Kulkarni * 5 0 12 1

M Stinson 5 2 18 0

D Bullick 5 0 18 2

S Lester 3.3 0 11 5

ARMAGH

C Russell b Hoey 12

M Villiers b Hoey 17

P Doyle c Morrison b Whitfield 26

CP Kulkarni * lbw Hammond 4

D Bullick not out 20

S Crowe not out 0