North County Cruise to Victory over Local Rivals as Leinster Senior League Cup Begins

A devastating opening bowling spell from Eddie Richardson, backed up by Dhram Singh, meant North County had a 38-run victory over Balbriggan and took the local bragging rights.

Were it not for some fine striking from Abdul Sattar (33) and Duane Harper (25*), the margin of victory would have been even more emphatic after North County reduced their visitors to 25/7 in the tenth over.

Balbriggan had no answer to Richardson, 3 for 3 at one stage, and Singh (3-4) as the wickets fell at regular intervals. Some were the result of fine bowling, but young wicket-keeper Luke Whelan played his part in backing up his bowlers.

He gathered two fine edges while keeping up to the stumps and took a flying catch, diving high to his right in front of first slip, to dismiss Nasr leaving Balbriggan 7/4 at that point.

Earlier, John Mooney (22) and Salman Aziz (25) recovered from the early loss of McGovern to settle the North County innings. They struck six boundaries between them, however Jonno Andrews struck six himself as he provided the late fireworks

Andrews (47*) faced just 32 as he pushed the total past a run a ball. Facing the last ball, Andrews could only score a single when a boundary would have brought him a half-century.

Interestingly, captain Nathan Rooney opted to give nine bowlers a bowl during the North County innings, as only himself and Duane Harper stayed out of the firing line.

Would 126/5 prove enough for an opening day victory, the answer came inside four overs of the reply as Richardson and Owen Graham demolished the top order.

As wickets continued to fall, through Singh, Sean Sludds and the run out of Matthew Varner it looked like Balbriggan would be bowled out inside their allocation. Instead Sattar struck the only maximums of the day, including a huge strike onto the clubhouse roof, and then Duane Harper fought to reduce the margin of defeat still further.

There was no denying that this was North County’s day though and they will take a lot of confidence from this resounding victory.

LHW Financial Planning Leinster Senior League Cup 20-over

Group B

North County v Balbriggan, Inch, Saturday July 18^th  

North County 126/5 20 Overs (J Andrews 47*, S Aziz 25*; M Varner 2-15)

Balbriggan 88/9 20 Overs (A Sattar 33, D Harper 25*; D Singh 3-4, E Richardson 3-6)

North County won by 38 runs