Vital win for 1sts

Lurgan pulled off their second T20 Ulster Bank Section 1 league win in a week with a 10 run win over Downpatrick at Pollock Park.

Batting first, a half century partnership between Stephen Johnston and professional Niranjan Godbole set up the platform for a challenging total against the top of the table visitors. Having lost Jack Harrison with the total on 8, Johnston and Godbole had taken the score to 63 when Johnston was caught out off the bowling of Dale Mullan for 32, his innings including one maximum and four 4’s. Mullan also claimed the wicket of Godbole for 24 while Teddy Tully’s innings of 23 included two sixes, one of which landed on the Clubhouse roof. Lurgan’s innings finished on the fourth ball of the 20th over when Jack Maxwell was bowled for 4 leaving the home side on 115 all out.

Downpatrick’s opening batsmen Gill and Mullan got away to a flyer with 22 on the board without loss after 2 overs. However the Town side struck back when Niranjan Godbole claimed 3 wickets in his first two overs and when Paul Stafford had Boultwood caught by Peter Maxwell, Lurgan had seized control of the game with the visitors struggling on 33 for 4 wkts. Lurgan used four slow bowlers in their attack and the Downpatrick batsmen gradually fell behind the required run rate while losing wickets at regular intervals. With 9 wickets down it fell to Callum Gibson to bowl the last over and the young paceman’s nerve held as he conceded only 9 runs, giving the town side a valuable 4 points. Paul Stafford took 3 wkts for just 10 runs in his 5 overs, Niranjan Godbole 3 for 20 off 5 while there was a wicket apiece for Peter Maxwell, Callum Gibson and Andrew Bingham.

The match ball used by Lurgan for this game was kindly sponsored by Alan Johnston.