Dominant Dundalk cricketers see off Terenure

On a very wet and miserable Sunday afternoon, Dundalk Cricket Club hosted Terenure CC in a crucial match for the league title.

Despite adverse weather conditions, the game went ahead, largely due to the sporting spirits of both teams. Captain Mike Waterman won the toss for Dundalk and elected to bowl first. An early wicket for Andy Williams did not halt Terenure’s explosive start to the innings, with boundaries frequent on the wet outfield. Sid Nair reached 50 for the away side before a heavy downpour saw the game suspended for 45 minutes. After the restart, the soaked ball became a lot harder to grip, which led to many slips in the field, allowing Terenure to reach an above-par total of 151 from their reduced 30 overs.

Waterman opened the batting with Andrew Pike and the pair put on a solid 63 runs for the first wicket before losing their wickets in quick succession. Firstly, Pike was bowled by Ted Mullen for 39 and in the next over Waterman got caught by Phil Rout at mid-on, having scored 27. The next pairing of Sajan Jayaseelan and Steve McGrath reacted superbly under the pressure, playing steady yet offensive innings to see Dundalk over the line in the 26th over. The pair finished the game on 29 and 47 not out respectively and the result sees Dundalk remain top of the table with one final game remaining against Railway Union next Saturday. The Second Team also finish off their season at the weekend, with Rush the visitors to Dromiskin next Sunday.

Dundalk I: M. Waterman (c, wk), A. Pike, S. Jayaseelan, S. McGrath, A. Williams, Z. Babar, B. Shanmugam, G. Armstrong, K. Waterman, M. Mullen, C. Martin, F. Boyle

Triple weekend success for cricketers

The Dundalk Cricketers who travelled to North Kildare last Friday

On Friday last, Dundalk Cricket Club played out a very enjoyable double-header under the hospitality of North Kildare Cricket Club.

There were notable performances with the bat, with Glen Armstrong, Ian McEvoy, Michael Mullen and Gerry McKeever reaching the retirement score. Deborah Challoner, Eddie Bosano-Andrews and Ulrich Ofterdinger all stood out with their bowling. However, it was a unanimous post-match decision to award man of the match to Catherine Raftis, who took her first senior wicket in the game.

Dundalk (vs. North Kildare): Michael Mullen ©, John Finnegan (wk), Catherine Raftis, Louise Challoner, Deborah Challoner, Liam Gaynor, Gerry McKeever, Ulrich Ofterdinger, Eddie Bosano-Andrews, Glen Armstrong, Ian McEvoy, Pat Kavanagh

On Saturday, Dundalk 1st XI took on Slieve Bloom CC in Dromiskin. Slieve Bloom started the game well, but great bowling from Conan Martin (3-47) and Lethin Mathew (3-35) restricted them to just 141. Dundalk wobbled at the start of their run-chase, losing Andy Pike in the first over but clinical batting from captain Mike Waterman (25), Lethin Mathew (40) and Sajan Jayaseelan (73 not out) gave Dundalk a comfortable seven wicket win and cemented their place at the top of the table.

Dundalk I (vs. Slieve Bloom): Mike Waterman (c, wk), Andrew Pike, Conan Martin, Lethin Mathew, Zaheer Babar, Rana Shoaib, Kevin Waterman, Michael Mullen, Jiwan Jodhani, Sanjay Kumar, Sajan Jayaseelan

On Sunday, Dundalk Seconds completed the remarkable weekend with a 45-run win over Clontarf in Mount Temple.

Dundalk had a shaky start to the game, losing 4 wickets in the opening overs before Kapil Pun (16) and Aijaz Ali (14) solidified the innings. However, Dundalk still looked uncertain on 79/9 before a massive 67-run last-wicket partnership from Sanjay Kumar and Seamus McDermott, which gave Dundalk a defendable total of 146. Two early wickets from Glen Armstrong (2-18) removed the Clontarf openers before Dundalk were pegged back by an Abdul Kahn half-century. Khan’s dismissal from Dundalk captain Tom Ryan started the collapse for Clontarf, with Ryan picking up figures of 4-13. Fiachra McDermott briefly offered resistance before being caught by McDermott off Mullen’s bowling to keep the Seconds in contention in the league.

Dundalk II (vs. Clontarf): Tom Ryan ©, Scott McDonnell (wk), Michael Mullen, Sanjay Kumar, Yassem Mohammed, Glen Armstrong, Gerry McKeever, Kapil Pun, Seamus McDermott, Meet Choudhary, Aijaz Ali

The Dundalk side who beat Slieve Bloom at the weekend

Two wins in three days for Dundalk Cricket Club

Kalkeran Kieran

Dundalk Cricket Club have had good reasons to celebrate this week with two remarkable wins in the space of one week.

The 1^st and 2^nd teams had both been in the doldrums this season, the 1^st team have had only one win all season in Leinster Division 8 and the 2^nd team only two at the beginning of the season in Division13, both were sitting in the relegation zone.

Things took a dramatic turn for the better on the bank holiday Monday of 4^th August when the 2nds faced Rush 4. There was some history to this fixture Dundalk 2 had faced Rush 4 in the opening match of the season and been comprehensively beaten so Dundalk were out to exact revenge and it came in devastating manner.

Having won the toss, Captain John Finnegan elected to bat and sent in the proven opening partnership of Kalkeren Kieran and Mike Waterman. A steady start was dismantled after Waterman was bowled by A. Neary for 6 and Kieran followed a short while later on 2. Boomeswaran Shanmugam stepped in at number three and made a great contribution the innings, top scoring with 25 before being run out looking for a quick single. Waleed Shahid and Derek Turner steadied the ship for Dundalk, the pair keeping their wickets before departing for 7 and 12 respectively. After Shahid was bowled by O Marsh, Dundalk collapsed on themselves, losing 4 cheap wickets in a row, three of them ducks. Samuel Dhinakaran and Kevin Waterman valiantly batted on a 10th wicket stand but the run out of Waterman left Dundalk stranded on just 74 runs.

After tea, it appeared that the game was dead and gone for Dundalk, with one of their lowest totals of the season, but an exceptional display with the ball from Lethin Matthew and from the team fielding as a whole secured a vital win for the home side.

Matthew dispatched the first two batsmen both for zero, bowling maiden after maiden, piling on the pressure for Rush. When Shanmugam trapped Rush captain An Ellison lbw in the fifth over, the advantage had swung in Dundalk’s favour. When Matthew picked up his third, fourth then fifth wicket it was, it was clear that Rush were going to be on the losing end. Pressure reached boiling point for Rush quickly, and they paid the price for it, with Michael Mullen combining with Finnegan to run out three batsmen in the field, while Kevin Waterman put them to the sword on the crease, sealing a famous victory for Dundalk.

The final score Dundalk 2nds 74 all out for Rush 4ths 35 all out a winning margin of 39 runs and enough to pull the team out of the relegation zone, if there are further wins in the remaining weeks of the season it should see the side stay up.

On Wednesday 6^th August it was the turn of the 1^st team, who were playing North Kildare 2nds in the semi-final of the Dick O’Neill Cup.

The opening pair of Jiwan Jodhani and Waleed Shahid did not last long, Jodhani bowled by a beautiful delivery from the pace blower Andrew Chase in the 3rd over of their innings. Dundalk failed to make any impact in the early overs of the match with wickets falling consistently, although the partnership of Boomee Shanmugam and Shahid began to grow as the pair top scored with 38 and 24 respectably. The partnership was broken in the middle overs of the game and the rest of the batting order struggled to make much impact on the total score, Dundalk being bowled out for a below average score of 99.

Play continued after drinks as North Kildare openers Lucy Small and Sean Dalton got off to a fast start, picking up the singles rather easily from Division 8’s leading bowler Andrew Williams. Williams bowled extremely well, and set a fast tempo to begin with. Defending a low total of 99 was never going to be easy for the Louth side, Captain Neil O’Callaghan bowling tidily as he finished on 0-25 from his 4 overs. The skipper then decided to bowl youngster Kalkeren Kieran, who went on to bowl the well set opener Dalton and then trapped the big hitter Chase lbw in his following over.  At that stage it looked like the match was firmly in the balance, but in T20 cricket the batting side are usually in control, it wasn’t to be this time around. There was a slight scare for Dundalk in the closing stages when two consecutive boundaries were hit off bowler Sajan Jeyaseelan, who fought back well to take the wicket next ball. Dundalk continued to set high standards in the field as Scott Mc Donnell saved a certain four in the closing overs of the match which may have ended with Dundalk on the wrong side of the result. Shanmugam went on to hold his nerve in the final over of the match and send Dundalk into their first ever cup final.

The final score was Dundalk 1sts 99 all out for North Kildare 2nds 88 all out and a win by a narrow 11 runs.

Dundalk have historically not fared too well in cup competitions and this is their first time in any kind of final.

The final itself takes place on August 17^th and Dundalk will face either Laois or Galway.

There should be enough momentum now for both sides to go onto further wins and although the chances of league success are now unachievable there is a real possibility that the club will be able to put the Dick O’Neill Cup in the trophy cabinet.