Forrest Fires Clontarf To Crucial Victory
An unbeaten 55 from Robert Forrest saw Clontarf home to a 5-wicket victory over Pembroke and kept their Premier League title aspirations alive.
Forrest’s innings came off 37 balls and included five boundaries and one big 6, as the Clontarf middle order guided them home with 10 balls to spare.
Earlier, Fiachra Tucker (30) had opted to bat on winning the toss and put on 51 with his brother Diarmuid (17) leading Pembroke to 73/1 at the halfway point drinks of the rain-reduced 32 over a side match.
Sameer Dutt (2-23) led the bowling attack for Clontarf as they took wickets at regular intervals throughout the 2 nd half of the Pembroke innings. Dutt backing up his bowling with two excellent catches.
The first was a clever piece of quick-thinking to knock the ball up for himself to gather, the second was stupendous. Diving one-handed to his left, running around from mid-wicket to long-on Dutt took a stunning catch to dismiss Theo Lawson and leave the home side 138/6.
Paul Lawson (37*; 3x4,2x6) added some late fire-power to the Pembroke innings, including 36 runs in the last three overs as they posted 178/6 off their 32 overs.
Declan Gallagher (26) lost his opening partner Coghlan early but in adding 37 with Waqar Azmat (16) for the 2nd wicket Clontarf seemed well placed at 45/2 after 9 overs.
However, Jack Balbirnie dismissed both in consecutive overs before Pienaar was bowled by Fiachra Tucker for 21 to leave Clontarf 87/4, 92 runs from victory with a little over 12 overs remaining.
Forrest was the new bat but darkening skies and rain in the air brought Duckworth Lewis sharply into focus and not merely chasing down 179 in 32 overs.
With Clontarf behind the par score, Poynter and Forrest set about catching up with a six each and Poynter boundary. When Poynter picked out Ridley on the legside boundary with his sweep shot, Clontarf were pushed further behind the par score and the rain was getting heavier.
Up stepped Forrest to hit successive boundaries to deep mid-wicket, followed by a straight drive for four more. Clontarf were up with the par score and when he was dropped off the first ball of the 26 th over, it seemed like it was destined to be Clontarf’s day.
It was Conor Kelly (17*) who smashed a huge 6 over long-off to tie the scores and then eased the single required for victory with ten balls remaining but there was no doubting the importance of Forrest’s contribution.
Speaking after the game he described the difficulty the players had in focusing and concentrating after the adrenaline and emotional stress of Saturday’s Leinster Senior Cup final.
It was a psychological and emotional tiredness, rather than physical, that Clontarf had to contend with which made the performance from the Northsiders even more impressive.
Mason Alexander LHW Financial Planning Cricket Leinster Premier League
Sydney Parade (32 overs a side)
Pembroke 178/6 32 overs (P Lawson 37*, F Tucker 30; A Poynter 2-22, S Dutt 2-23)
Clontarf 179/5 30.2 overs (R Forrest 55*, A Poynter 28; F Tucker 2-33, J Balbirnie 2-45)
Clontarf win by 5 wickets