SANDYFORD & FINGLAS VICTORIOUS IN LAST ROUND OF FINALS ACTION!

The Maws, Kilcock played host to the last two Open Competitions finals yesterday afternoon, with both the Adamstown Cup, and the Minor 2 Cup played out to their conclusions.

The first game to get underway was the Adamstown Cup, which saw Sandyford win the toss and elect to bat first against Kilkenny.

Sandyford’s start was sedate, and after 6 overs they had lost their first wicket with the score on 26, Jerin Joseph the successful bowler for Kilkenny.

Lintu Regi then entered the attack for Kilkenny and produced an excellent spell of 3/12 from his four overs to put his side firmly in the driving seat, Sandyford were 66/4 with 5 overs to go.

The Marlay Park outfit then managed to take no fewer than 52 runs from the final 5 overs of the innings, propelling them to a final total of 118/6, one which was certain to at worst prove competitive.

In response, Kilkenny were never really able to get going, mainly due to Sathish Mohan’s opening spell for Sandyford, he took 3 wickets in reducing their opposition to 26/6 after 9 overs, and from there whilst the task was not impossible, it was very steep.

Kilkenny’s lower order never gave up the ghost and battled valiantly on its way to being all out for 66, meaning Sandyford had secured a 52 run victory to be crowned Adamstown Cup Champions for the 2022 season.

Our second game of the day was the Minor 2 Cup Final between Clontarf 7 and Finglas 3, as in the spirit of continuous development of this competition, the game was shifted to a grass wicket, what was clear from the outset of this game was whoever dealt with this the best was sure to ultimately win the game.

Clontarf won the toss and elected to bowl first, and an excellent opening spell from Freya Sargent, taking 2/13 from her four overs, was the main contribution in reducing Finglas to just 24/4 in the opening 8 overs.

Ronn Mathew steadied the ship for Finglas, making 20 in good time and ensuring Clontarf couldn’t make a breakthrough at his end, however a wicket apiece for Harry Irving and Michael Fitzsimons kept the wickets column ticking for Clontarf.

When Mathew was dismissed by Anna Marshall, and Ankesh Mishra quickly followed to the same bowler, Finglas were 76/8 and a good score looked a long way away.

Sajith Sudhi and Chetan Mahadev however were the two men who came to the rescue, they shared an unbroken stand of 34 in the final four overs to boost their side to 110/8, which looked to at absolute worst have given them a good chance.

Clontarf’s opening pair of Alice Walsh and Harry Irving appeared intent on running at absolutely every opportunity, this would eventually cost both of them, as firstly Irving and then Walsh were both run out by good pieces of fielding either side of the wicket of Freya Sargent. The chasing side left 30/3 and with plenty of work to do.

That work was made even more difficult when Vishnu RA entered the attack for Finglas, in an excellent two over spell he took three wickets and conceded just 6 runs, reducing Clontarf to 41/6 at the halfway stage of their innings.

Neville George took the wicket of Julie McNally to make the score 46/7, and not alone was the number of wickets becoming an issue, but the required run rate had also risen to in excess of 6 an over for the chasing side.

There was a belligerent 17 from Jon Barry, before he and captain Micky Lowe were both clean bowled by Sumesh Omanakuttan.

Hannah Pasley and Michael Fitzsimons were the final pair and battled hard to get their team score to 80, however Fitzsimons was caught on the deep fine leg boundary off a full toss which brought an end to the game, seeing Finglas run out 30 run winners and the Minor 2 Cup Champions for the 2022 season!