Not a crunchie Friday for 1st X1
Lisburn 1st XI where the visitors to Eaton Park on Friday in the Ulster Bank Premier League clash and disappointingly for Ballymena left with the victory.
Ballymena 1st XI batted first and on a pitch more suited to seam bowling, they found themselves in big trouble when Robert Kennedy (5) Carl Williams (1) and David Kennedy (0) where all back in the pavilion when the score was on 13! David Simpson caused most of the early damage by bowling full and straight and getting the ball to move both ways.
It was left to captain, James Kennedy and overseas professional, Kaushik Aphale, to rebuild the innings. They batted intelligently together as they compiled a half century stand, putting away the occasional ‘bad ball’ that came their way. When Aphale (24) was out to a simple return catch and Kennedy (34) out LBW shortly after, a score in excess of 130 looked unlikely. Last week’s batting star, Andrew Kirkpatrick, however had other ideas. He compiled a superb undefeated innings of 71 and took the Ballymena score at the completion of the innings to what should have been a very competitive 163.
Ballymena required early wickets and unfortunately despite excellent opening spells from Michael Glass and Matthew Purse they did not arrive. The Lisburn openers certainly where ‘riding their luck’ as they played and missed on numerous occasions and when the bowlers did ‘find an edge’ the ball continually landed in safety.
Despite the home sides 4 spinners best efforts the pitch seemed to have ‘flattened out’ and although Aphale and Taylor shared 4 wickets that was as good as it got for the Eaton Park men as Lisburn passed their target with 3 overs to spare.
A disappointing day for the home side who now have to pick themselves up for the daunting trip to Comber on Saturday to face North Down. Ballymena will be without the holidaying Robert Kennedy but are hopeful that Moe Verjee will be available once again.
