Monday 20th of February marked the opening of the cricket season in Leinster.

It was the first match in the inaugural 'Dublin City Spring Series', which is being played between the NCI (National College of Ireland) and DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology). In bowler friendly conditions DIT, lead by Rahul Balachandran, defeated NCI by 5 wickets. NCI won the toss and decided to bat first. Murali RR took 3 early wickets and the NCI never recovered. Sean McAuley blew away the DIT top order and was ably supported by Adamstown resident Ebin Seby, who bowled with genuine pace. However Rahul Balachandran of Clonee CC used his knowledge of local conditions as he hit a few lusty blows to close out the game in DITs favour.

It was in fact NCI's first ever cricket match, the club was only formed a few weeks ago. NCI were ably led by Sujay Nandakumar. Many thanks to Clonee CC for the use of their excellent facilities at Porterstown and the NCI for supplying transport for the players.

The second match of the 3-match series will be played in the coming weeks.

Both clubs are looking for friendlies and are open to outdoor, indoor, hard ball or tape ball matches of any kind.

Both clubs can be contacted on Facebook.

Bhargav Reddy, NCI Cricket Club PRO