Limerick v Nenagh 14/8/2011

Limerick returned to winning ways and took a giant step to claiming victory in the Division 3 League on Sunday. They had a tense five wicket victory over top of the table Nenagh at Adare.

Having won the toss and elected to field, Limerick’s bowlers quickly began to build pressure. A break through seemed inevitable when two edges went just out of reach of slip and gully in the first 5 overs. In the 7th over Bharath took a reflex, one handed, diving catch at gully to remove Tom off the bowling of Suman for 5. Limerick capitalised on this wicket and quickly made in-roads. With the wickets of Jojin and Niall Brooke, Nenagh were left reeling at 17 for 3. Niall Brooke was first to go when he was LBW to Suman for 2. The very next over Fassy had Jojin caught by the wicket keeper David Lynch for 5.

When Nenagh captain Ginison was given not out LBW having looked to be plumb, Nenagh sought to counter attack to set a target that could challenge Limerick. This decision was reflected in the first two overs from 1st change bowler Bharath. In his first over, Jonu edged three times wide of the slips. His second over was very different, with Jonu taking the attack to him and hitting him for a straight 6 and two 4’s. Jonu and Ginison continued there attacking ways taking their side to the drinks break without losing any more wickets and building a 70 run partnership. At the half way point of their innings it was beginning to look ominous for Limerick that Nenagh could push on to a total of 200.

In the very first over after the break, Jonu got to 50 but two balls later was bowled by Hanu without adding to his score. This was the turning point of the innings. Jonu had ridden his luck during his innings. Apart from Bharath’s first over he been put down twice on the boundary firstly on the cover boundary and secondly at long on. With him gone, it was up to Ginison to keep up the run rate but he was getting no real support from the other end. Sreenran was next to go, when following some tight bowling he tried to cut one that got high on him and he could only top edge a cut shot to Lynch. Tiju followed two overs later to the same bowler, when he looked to leave a ball he thought was going down the leg side. Unfortunately for him it was a leg cutter that cut back sharply to remove his leg stump. With Sijo, Ginison had an attack minded partner. It was John Daly that finally removed Ginison. He came into the attack at a very difficult stage of the innings; when Nenagh were looking to push onto a score of 160/ 180. After being hit for three boundaries in his first over, he showed character to recover to find his length to pick up the vital wicket of Ginison for 38. With a fine away swinger, he had Ginison top edge a cut to the keeper Lynch. It was a fine captain innings by Ginison and had brought Nenagh into contention.

In Daly’s next over, Asim (9) lobbed a catch to cover and was easily taken by Aidan Fahey. Limerick pressed home their advantage, with Fassy removing Aji LBW for 0 and Bharath taking the final wicket of Sijo for 14 caught by Lynch. This left Sebatan not out 1 at the other end. Nenagh were all out for 136 from 33.3 overs. A very impressive bowling spell by the Limerick bowlers in favourable batting conditions would be leave Nenagh ruing not batting their allotted 40 overs.

This left Limerick needing less than 3.5 an over from their 40 overs. It was therefore a must for Nenagh that they bowl out Limerick, to have any real chance of winning the match. They looked to have a real chance of doing just that, when Limerick had their own collapse at the start of their innings. Bharath was first to go in the third over when he was LBW to Ginison for 0. In Ginison’s following over he bowled number 3 batsmen Fassy for a 2 ball 0 when he left an off cutter. With Limerick looking to steady the innings they looked comfortable reachin reached 30 for 2 from 10 overs. Within 3 overs they lost 2 more wickets for the addition of just 3 runs. Bandam was first to go when he was bowled for 21 by first change bowler Sijo for 21 when he played over a straight ball that took his middle stump. Lynch soon followed. When a call by Lynch for single to square leg led to a mix up, he was left stranded half way down the wicket and was easily run out at the bowler’s end.

It was up to Suman and his new batting partner Hashir to regain the initiative and that’s exactly what they did. In the next three overs they added 33 runs. This was helped to a large part by Sijo who bowled 4 no balls and a wide in his 4th and final over. Having been warned for bowling a no ball above waist height, he had to be removed from the attack when he bowled another in the same over. This was the turning point in the innings and very soon after both teams had to come off for heavy rain. When both teams returned, the target was reduced from 137 from 40 overs to 109 from 32. With neither batsmen looking troubled by the bowling, both were growing confidence and an important partnership for the team. Suman continued to score freely after the return and with Ginison’s 7th over going for 12 and Joni’s 2nd over going for 11 it seemed only a matter of time before Limerick would win. The only nervy point was when Hashir was bowled for 17 when he too left an off cutter and his off stump was removed by Sebatan. This match winning partnership of 69 got Limerick to within 7 runs of victory. Niranjan played out the rest of the over to give Sebatan a wicket maiden. It was fitting that it was therefore left to man of the match Suman, to bring Limerick one step closer to the league title; when he hit two boundaries in a row to give Limerick a convincing victory.

Having 32 overs to reach their target of 109, Limerick needed only 24.3 overs. Unsurprisingly Suman’s 2 wickets for 26 runs from 7 overs and his 51 from 54 balls won him the man of the match award. Other notable performers include Hashir and Fassy. Hashir finished with 2 wickets for 30 runs from 8 overs and 17 from 21 balls. Fassy had the best figures of the game with 7 overs 2 wickets for 8 runs.