LITTLE BIT OF CLASS SEES PEMBROKE TO VICTORY

It was an evening to remember for Pembroke’s LouLou Little yesterday, as her 99* was the base for her side’s 173/2 which saw them to an ultimately comfortable 45 run win at home against Merrion in our featured game of the day.

Pembroke skipper Mary Waldron won the toss and had no hesitation in choosing to bat first on an excellent Sydney Parade track. Little and Waldron opened the innings, and it was Little who set the tone as in the second over she hammered three boundaries through cover to get herself off to a flying start.

The pair were going about their work in a busy fashion, running well for the first few overs whilst Little was retaining the majority of the strike until Niamh McNulty got a ball to lift on Waldron, which she leading edged to mid-wicket where Rachel Delaney took a straightforward catch.

This brought Shauna Kavanagh to the crease, she was equally busy and her running between the wickets kept serious pressure on the Merrion outfielders, meaning any fumbles quickly turned ones into twos, having arrived at the crease with Little just short of 40, the Pembroke number three had quietly and efficiently moved to 29 by the time her partner passed 50 in the 14^th over.

With two set batters, 9 wickets in hand and just 6 overs to bat, Pembroke were poised for an assault at a big score, Kavanagh took a back seat, handing strike over to Little at every opportunity as the Pembroke opener went through the gears. She offered a chance down to the long-on boundary when on 67, where Rebecca Stokell misjudged the catch and could only get a finger to it as it went for 6.

At the beginning of the final over, Kavanagh was dismissed by Leah Paul to a good catch at mid-off by Celeste Raack, bringing Orla Prendergast to the crease, after she had hit a boundary and a single, Little faced up to the final delivery on 98 but could only manage a single to square leg to finish on 99* as her side set a daunting target of 174 to win for Merrion.

Leah Paul and Rebecca Stokell set about the chase with excellent intent, the latter dominating their partnership of 62 for the first wicket, before she was bowled by Anna Beale for 38 to bring Rachel Delaney to the crease, but from that point on, wickets persistently fell in pairs for Merrion.

Firstly Delaney and Paul fell in quick succession, then Celeste Raack and Isabel Light. Cecelia Joyce had seen most of the carnage from the far end, and struck some well-timed boundaries in a counter-attack, but as she ran out of partners she didn’t quite catch hold of a pull shot out to deep mid-wicket, where the star of the show LouLou Little took a good catch.

Another pair of wickets then fell, as Mhairi Nicholl dismissed Sophie Stewart, caught again by Little who this time had made her way to cover, before Niamh McNulty was dismissed first ball to an excellent piece of glovework by Mary Waldron. Merrion made their way to 128/8 in their 20 overs, ultimately falling 45 runs short.

Elsewhere, at Castle Avenue, Clontarf batted first against YMCA and had gotten themselves into an excellent position at 112/1 with 4 overs to go, before three wickets for Kate McEvoy, and two for Lucy O’Reilly pegged them back as they could only manage a further 26 in the remainder of the innings.

Isobel Joyce’s 59 from just 43 balls was the main contribution of the innings, whilst Aoife Brennan also made 48 as the pair added 86 for the second wicket to see the home side to 138/6 in their 20 overs.

Gaby Lewis and Sarah Forbes shared an opening stand of 52 in the first 4 overs of the innings, with the latter dismissed for 12 by Anna Kirk. This brought Robyn Lewis to the crease and the pair set about chasing the runs as quickly as possible.

An indicator of just how well Gaby Lewis played is possibly the fact that no bowler escaped punishment, she hammered 14 boundaries and three maximums in a 46 ball unbeaten 94, as the Sandymount side made their way to their target of 139 after just 12.3 overs. Robyn Lewis finished unbeaten on 22 as the sisters shared an unbroken stand of 87 for the second wicket.

In the other game of the evening, Phoenix’s visit to Malahide proved fruitful as some excellent performances by their star names saw them to a 32 run victory.

Batting first, Phoenix’s openers put on 62 before Nevedha Saravanarajan was dismissed for 29. Lara Maritz entered at number 3 joining Georgina Dempsey at the crease and they added a further 40 to the total before the opener was stumped by Amy Hunter for 39. Maritz then set about her work, dominating the remainder of the innings before being run out for 51 with just 4 balls to go in the final over.

Sarah Brophy bowled an excellent spell in the middle overs, seeing her take 4/25 from her allocation including the wicket of Dempsey which meant the scoring rate was kept somewhat under control. As Phoenix made 156/6 from their 20 overs.

For an awfully long way in the chase, Malahide looked like they were going to push their visitors right to the end. Openers Caoimhe McCann and Amy Hunter went off like a rocket as their partnership of 107 in the first 12 overs included 15 boundaries. They needed just a further 49 from 48 balls when Lara Maritz pinned McCann in front and saw the LBW decision go in favour of Phoenix, the Malahide skipper dismissed for an excellent 45.

Ashlee King dismissed Malahide number 3 Gemma Devally for a duck, after which it was the Dempsey and Maritz show. Dempsey ran out Sarah Condron for a duck, and two balls later castled Hunter for 55, following up the next ball by bowling Emma McMurray. She couldn’t produce a hat-trick on this occasion.

Maritz then ran out Beth Deacon and Sarah Brophy in the space of 12 balls, but the moment of the game was yet to come. Dempsey clean bowled Isobel McCormack with the third ball of the 19^th over, following up with another delivery on the money to knock over Aisling McCormack bowled first ball.

This time she made no mistake with her hat-trick ball, bowling Maria O’Halloran to complete an amazing spell of the game in which Phoenix took all ten Malahide wickets in the space of 40 balls for the price of just 17 runs. Dempsey finished with 3/19 from 3.5 overs to go with her earlier runs in a very clear player of the match performance.

SPRINT COATINGS DIVISION ONE

ROUND 4 – 28^TH JUNE

At Sydney Parade
Pembroke – 173/2, 20 overs (L Little 99*, S Kavanagh 44)
beat
Merrion – 128/8, 20 overs (R Stokell 38, C Joyce 20)
by 45 runs

At Castle Avenue
Clontarf – 138/6, 20 overs (I Joyce 59, A Brennan 48; K McEvoy 3/13, L O’Reilly 2/15)
lost to
YMCA – 139/1, 12.3 overs (G Lewis 94*, R Lewis 22*)
by 9 wickets

At Malahide
Phoenix – 156/6, 20 overs (L Maritz 51, G Dempsey 39; S Brophy 4/25)
beat
Malahide – 124 all out, 20 overs (A Hunter 55, C McCann 45; G Dempsey 5/19)
by 32 runs