It’s not that long ago that scores of 200 plus were major achievements in 50-overs cricket but the emergence of a new attacking breed of batsmen has raised that bar to 300 plus, and Limavady’s 393 for 8 against Killymallaght was just a couple of boundaries short of the 400 mark.
These are mighty achievements and clearly show the way cricket has advanced in recent times although some skeptics might point out that the standard of bowling has dropped at the same time. Perhaps so, but that’s not the only reason for batting supremacy given that the standard and aggressive approach to batting that is now prevalent in cricket, wickets have generally improved, and the modern rules and lawsfavour batsmen more than bowlers. It’s all part of the modern game and when all’s said and done, who wants to watch low-scoring matches?
Given the phenomenal success of Twenty20 cricket at the highest level perhaps our local batsmen have captured the spirit of the times and gone into their normal cricket with similar gusto?
Of course good weather and hard wickets help, but for the record there were seven senior centuries in NCU cricket and six up in the North-West over the weekend and these don’t include anything that happened in the Ulster Shield. There were some amazing performances on this barmy batting weekend which got off to a terrific start at the Lawn on Friday afternoon when Waringstown professionalIjaz Ahmed savaged the Cliftonville attack with 147 not out in 69 balls! His innings included ten sixes and thirteen fours raising the 300 mark in 41 overs. The performance certainly rubbed off on James Hall who added another for the club on Saturday in the cup game against Woodvale with 105.
Elsewhere, North Down run machine Jo Montgomery (127 not out) scored his third of the season against Derriaghy in a high-scoring bonanza at Comber and Niranjan Godbole (116) made light of the Armagh attack in Lurgan’s easy win over theirneighbours.
Dundrum has had a fairytale start to the season with their senior cup run and it gets better and better for skipper Rodney Hassard who set a club record with 139 not out against Laurelvale. But Rodney’s outstanding performance wasn’t the highest in the NCU over the weekend as Templepatrick’s fine young batsman Robert Smith hit 148 against Dungannon. And just to round it off, the Donaghadee batsman with the famous name F Gilroy hit 102 against Clogher.
The batting circus in the North-West was spearheaded by Limavady with Agha Sabir’s 143 and David Cooke’s 95 setting the tone for an equally amazing weekend up the M2.
Drummond (310 for 7) had two centurions in S Moore (160 not out) and S Butt (105) but they still couldn’t beat Creevedonnell whileS McCaygot 106 against the Nedd. South African Christian Jonker hit 113 in Fox Lodge’s win over Eglinton but perhaps the Century-of -the-Day in North-West cricket was Dwayne McGerrigle’s 112 not out against Strabane. The Donemana captain came to the wicket with the home team in a bit of trouble but he was still there at the end having smashed ten sixes and eight fours in his match-winning innings that took Donemana to the top of the league table.
There were several near misses in the nervous nineties in both unions and half centuries aplenty all over the province. Even old favourite Alan Waite got into the mood with 102 for Waringstown Seconds against Ballymena.
This was great for cricket and while it must have been tough going for the bowlers it’s what cricket fans really want to see.
Roll on next weekend.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
