Rathkeale’s Jake Jonas hitting out in Saturday’s umpires cup final. PHOTOS/JAKE BELESKI
CRICKET
JAKE BELESKI
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The Rathkeale College First XI produced a dominant bowling performance to comfortably beat Red Star by 82 runs and win the Umpires Cup at Queen Elizabeth Park on Saturday.
Rathkeale captain John McKenzie wasn’t sure if his team’s total of 155-9 for the 40-0ver match would be enough, but as he had no reason to worry as Red Star were bundled out for 73 in just 21.2 overs, to give Rathkeale the win.
Rathkeale won the toss and elected to bat and were given a solid start by openers McKenzie [42 off 65 deliveries] and Alfie McIntosh [13 off 29].
There were some hiccups in the middle of the innings as they lost four wickets for three runs [66-2 to 69-6] at one stage.
Jesse McIntyre – batting at No 8 – put some meat on Rathkeale’s innings as he struck 51 off 49 deliveries, including six boundaries.
That got Rathkeale through to their final score of 155-9, but they had been hoping for more.
“I wasn’t fully confident about that to be honest – I would have liked more and we were targeting closer to 200,” McKenzie said.
“Red Star bowled and fielded really well, and the wicket was quite slow at one end too.”
Plenty of grass on the wicket had given the impression it would be a quick pitch, but McKenzie said it had played significantly slower than expected.
Ojas Patel was the pick of the bowlers for Red Star, finishing with 4-26 from his eight overs.
Daniel Murray took 2-23 from his four overs, while there was a wicket apiece for Craig Stoneley, Jignesh Patel and Morgan Austin.
McKenzie had spoken before the match of the importance of dismissing Red Star’s top order batsmen, as they had three of the four top run scorers in the competition in their side.
He would have been delighted when Gus Borren trapped the dangerous Tim Burling in front for two in the first over, and Red Star were quickly in big trouble – Austin and Troy Burling joining Burling in the sheds with just four runs on the board.
A couple of partnerships from the middle order added some respectability to the score, but Red Star lost their last five wickets for just 12 runs to be all out for 73.
Only two Red Star batsmen reached double figures, with Stoneley [19 off 35] and Kenneth Sprowson [15 off 25] doing the bulk of the scoring.
Borren finished with the impressive figures of 3-19 from his eight overs for Rathkeale, while Hunter Wyeth [2-31 from four overs] and Ralph McLeod [2-9 from 2.2 overs] also bowled well.
Jake McIntyre and Jesse McIntyre both picked up one wicket apiece.
McKenzie said he could not have asked for more from his bowling attack on such a big occasion.
“The opening bowlers were really good – they were absolutely outstanding and I couldn’t have been happier.
“They got the ball to swing and bowled to their fields.”
For Jake McIntyre, it was his last match for Rathkeale, and McKenzie was thrilled they could send him off on a winning note.
“It was very fitting to finish like that, especially for Jake who bowled really well.
“He didn’t do as well as he would have liked with the bat, but he really backed it up with the ball and got some good swing bowler’s wickets.”
SCOREBOARD
RATHKEALE FIRST XI V RED STAR
Umpires Cup Final, Queen Elizabeth Park
Rathkeale First XI
John McKenzie b O Patel 42
Alfie McIntosh b C Stoneley 13
Gus Borren b J Patel 0
Ralph McLeod c J Patel b O Patel 6
Jake Jonas c T Burling b D Murray 12
Jake McIntyre b O Patel 0
Josh Matthews c D Dale b O Patel 0
Jesse McIntyre b M Austin 51
Hunter Wyeth not out 11
George Tanner M Austin b D Murray 2
Jacob Osborne not out 6
Extras [9w, 1nb, 1lb, 1b] 12
Total [for 9wkts, 40 overs] 155
Fall: 38, 39, 66, 69, 69, 69, 99, 132, 138.
Bowling: Craig Stoneley 8-1-26-1, Jignesh Patel 8-3-18-1, Ojas Patel 8-1-26-4, Troy Burling 8-2-14-0, Daniel Murray 4-0-23-2, Jason Johns 2-0-19-0, Morgan Austin 2-0-27-1.
Red Star
Tim Burling lbw G Borren 2
Troy Burling c J Matthews b J McIntyre 0
Morgan Austin c G Tanner b G Borren 2
Jignesh Patel b G Borren 8
Craig Stoneley c&b H Wyeth 19
Kenneth Sprowson c J McIntyre b H Wyeth 15
Michael McDonald c J McIntyre b R McLeod 0
Daniel Murray c R McLeod b J McIntyre 2
Dave Dale not out 0
Jason Johns c J McKenzie b R McLeod 8
Ojas Patel run out 0
Extras [9w, 3 nb, 4 lb, 1b] 17
Total [all out 21.2 overs] 73
Fall: 2, 4, 4, 21, 56, 61, 63, 63, 72, 73.
Bowling: Gus Borren 8-1-19-3, Jake McIntyre 4-2-7-1, Hunter Wyeth 4-0-31-2, Jesse McIntyre 3-1-2-1, Ralph McLeod 2.2-0-9-2.
Result: Rathkeale College First XI won by 82 runs.
