On a perfect day for cricket in Jack Harper Memorial Park, Balbriggan Skipper Duane Harper won the toss and as is the way in early season Leinster cricket, inserted the opposition.
Mick Cotter and Kenny McDonald opened for Terenure and Harper himself took the ball for Balbriggan. Cotter was bowled by Harper when the score was 6. Liam Harris joined McDonald and they progressed steadily bringing the score to 48 and which time Harris was caught behind by Fletcher of the bowling of Ehtesham Ahmed for 27.
Seamus Lynch joined McDonald and the pair brought the score to 69 when McDonald was bowled by Ahmed for 11. Brandon Graber and Lynch brought up the century and then Graber fell lbw to Ahmed for 17. Josh Uddin and Lynch put on 25 for the next wicket where Lynch fell lbw to Timcen Maruma for an excellent 31. Alex Mathews came and went for a duck, bowled by Maruma.
Six runs later Josh Udden was stumped by Fletcher of Emad Uddin for a gallant 24 and with the score at 140 Donal Lynch was caught by Maruma off the bowling of Uddin. Diarmuid Lynch not out 12 and Sidharth Nair not out 23 brought the final total to 171. How good that score was nobody knew on the first day of the season in Balbriggan. Duane Harper 1 for 11, Ehtesham Ahmed 3 for 35, Timcen Maruma 2 for 29 all bowled well, but the pick of the bowlers was Emad Udden with 3 for 21 from his 10 overs. However 21 wides added quite substantially to the Terenure total.
Conor Fletcher and Adrian Harper opened for Balbriggan as the sun continued to beat down. The pair played carefully and reached 16 when Harper was bowled by Brandon Graber. Farooq Nasr joined Fletcher and immediately injected some pace into the scoreboard. Playing freely with Fletcher still watchful but punishing the bad ball, Balbriggan reached 54 when Farooq Nasr was out.
Balbriggan's overseas professional Timcen Maruma then joined Fletcher. Both played beautifully. The odd play and miss was induced from the Terenure attack but both Fletcher and Maruma were well on top. Both were severe on anything off line. Maruma faced 49 balls for his 51 not out hitting 5 fours and 2 sixes. Fletcher there from ball one faced 98 balls for his 73 not out with 3 fours and 5 sixes. Balbriggan finishing on 174 for 2 in 30.1 overs. Brandon Graber 1 for 45 and Kenny McDonald 1 for 38 the successful bowlers for Terenure. Terenure also suffered badly from the wide bug, contributing 24 to the Balbriggan total.
A good win for the home team in their opening match leaves Terenure with two losses in their first two games. Both teams play again on Monday. Balbriggan at home again to Railway Union and Terenure travel again to an in form Rush.