SPRINT COATINGS SENIOR CUP ROUND-UP

There were victories this evening for Pembroke, Phoenix, The Hills and Merrion as the first round of the Sprint Coatings Senior Cup produced some excellent moments of cricket across the board.

In the Phoenix Park, a Gaby Lewis century was the driving force behind an excellent total of 190/6 as they batted first against Clontarf. An opening stand of 117 with Georgina Dempsey was broken when Julie McNally took the first of her two wickets, with Alyssa Pasley the other bowler to take two wickets in the first innings. Lucy Barry and Sinead Thomson were the other successful bowlers in what was a decent fightback following Lewis’ dismissal.

Clontarf’s chase was never ahead of the game, Freya Sargent’s 41 from 31 balls along with Julie McNally’s 30 from 28 adding 64 for the third wicket but never really putting themselves into the race as the side could only manage 116/5 in their 20 overs, seeing Phoenix run out 74 run winners.

In Malahide, the home side batted first and a really excellent opening spell from Síbha Bhoja for Merrion saw her taking 3/8 from 3 overs and putting their hosts in all sorts of trouble. A 58 run partnership between Anna Kerrison and Gemma Devally somewhat rescued the innings before the latter was dismissed for 20. Kerrison finished unbeaten on 37 in guiding the side to 90/5 off 20 overs. Niamh MacNulty and Bhoja opened the batting for Merrion and added 19 before a wicket fell, however in spite of this the chase was never in too much trouble, as Bhoja continued playing second fiddle with an unbeaten 22, whilst Rebecca Stokell stroked an excellent unbeaten 45 from just 28 balls including 6 boundaries on the way to a 9 wicket victory for Merrion.

The Hills racked up a very good total of 180/7, helped hugely by no less than 50 extras, as the Maguire sisters’ 5^th wicket stand of 67 helped them put together a good total. Aimee (41) top scored whilst Jane (31) was second best for the away side, Tahlia Dunne had earlier fallen for 24, a score which would have seen Balbriggan hopeful of really restricting their opposition in their innings. Anna Vezhakattu took 3/38 including the coveted wicket of Dunne and was the pick of the bowlers for the ‘Brig.

Balbriggan were never in the chase, as after Aimee Maguire dismissed Izzy McLean, a simply remarkable spell of bowling from Lara McBride saw her taking 4/1 from 3.2 overs, accompanied by 2/1 from 2 overs by Elise Noble as the home side were all out for just 47, Claudia Green the only batter to make double figures as The Hills ran out 133 run victors.

The featured action of the evening saw Pembroke winning the toss and bowling first against Leinster. The decision wasn’t vindicated straight away, as Leinster’s opening pair added 59 before two wickets in two balls from Sarah Forbes gave the home side the breakthrough, Rebecca Rolfe caught at mid-on, before an expertly thought out plan saw Sophie MacMahon caught at deep extra-cover by Orla Prendergast. Laura Delany also fell to Forbes, before the big wicket of Clare Webber for 43 as Lou Lou Little bowled her with her first ball with the score on 87, the first ball of her second over yielded the wicket of Joanna Loughran. Little’s comeback over then saw her take 3 wickets in four balls to round out the innings and see Leinster all out for 119 in 19.4 overs. Only Ava Canning passed double figures after the opening pair of Webber (43) and Rolfe (24) had been dismissed.

Two early wickets for Ava Canning saw Orla Prendergast and Lou Lou Little dismissed inside the first four overs, however Pembroke recovered nicely making their way to 40/2 at the end of the PowerPlay. Shauna Kavanagh and Sarah Forbes added 46 for the third wicket before firstly Forbes was trapped LBW and then Kavanagh was bowled, both by Laura Delany for 16, the Irish skipper taking 2/25 from her 4 overs. That however brought Robyn Lewis and Clare Shillington together at the crease with the pair adding an unbeaten stand of 31 from just 24 balls to round off a fine victory for the home side and see them marching into the semi-finals.

The Sprint Coatings Women's Senior Cup semi-finals will take place on Thursday 16th July as follows:

Phoenix vs Merrion (Phoenix Park)

The Hills vs Pembroke (The Vineyard)