Perfect day as Kerry Cricket Club seconds take pair of Cup wins

The Kerry 2nd XI made the long journey to Nenagh on Saturday morning for a double header under very threatening skies.

First up was the hosts Nenagh 1st XI and on winning the toss home captain Sreehari Vinobaji took the decision to have a bat. That decision appeared to be the correct one as the Nenagh openers put on an opening partnership of 53 before Cinulal Varickatharappel picked out a fielder in the deep as he was dismissed for 31 runs.

The home team struggled thereafter and as the run rate dried. Up stepped Kerry fast bowler Adil Rahil who took a quick fire five wickets in three overs for just 20 runs as the hosts were dismissed for 112 in their 20 overs allotted.

Solid starts by the Kerry opening batters Usman Butt and Sohaib Asghar Chohan put a decent foundation in place, but an unexpected middle order collapse put the visitors in a spot of bother as they found themselves 77/7 in the fifteen over.

With game in the balance Farrukh Hussain scored 14 runs and Usman Sheraz scored 21 runs to put the winning line in sight as it fittingly fell to Kerry Captain Majid Yousaf to hit the winning runs with just one ball to spare as Kerry picked up the deserved victory.

Kerry 2nd XI 113/9 beat Nenagh 1st XI 112/9 by 1 wicket.

Next up was Clare 1st XI and on winning the toss Clare captain Johnson Navroop wisely elected to have a bowl with grey clouds gathering in the distance.

Sohaib Asghar top scored for Kerry with a decent knock of 40 runs and Libin Philip chipped in down the order with 23 runs as Kerry put up the competitive total of 130.

In reply, Clare battled hard as opening batter Wadood Shahzad put on 35 runs before his stumps were rearranged by the impressive bowling of Kerry’s Ajinth Thanathan.

Adil Rahil was cleverly thrown the ball by Kerry captain Majid Yousaf a match changing decision as like just in the first match the Kerry quickie set about the Clare middle and lower order producing a quite astounding spell of bowling to pick up another five-wicket haul to put the game firmly in Kerry’s grasp.

With 12 runs needed off the last over Clare pushed hard but could only find six runs before the final ball was sent down for a dot to spark wild celebrations among the Kerry team which topped off the perfect day!

Kerry 2nd XI 130/6 beat Clare 1st XI 124/9 by 6 runs