Malahide 5ths suffered a third straight defeat in a mid-table clash with Greystones.  From the start Greystones' bowlers dominated our opening batsmen, restricting us to a run rate of under two an over.  Coming in at three Shamil Kootembeth (35) began to tilt the balance in favour of the bat with a positive approach and intelligent shot selection.  At drinks, he and Adam Doyle had taken the total past 60.  The interval though broke our rhythm and afterwards wickets fell quickly.  At 87 for 8, even a hundred looked out of reach but the tail wagged with Brian Thornes (15) and Paul Devine (13) taking us on to 128 all out.  It's worth adding that we lost eight wickets to catches and the Greystones' bowlers were on a hat-trick three times.

The low target meant the opposition batsmen could play with freedom and they were ahead of the run rate from the start.  A wicket from Shamil backed up with good line and length bowling from the other bowlers and Jack Grant's flawless keeping applied some pressure.  Adam Doyle got another wicket with an excellent catch from Shamil but, as ever when the fielding team is up against it, half chances landed short or flew by.  

Our bowling and fielding showed energy and commitment, but we were once again left to rue our batting performance.  Greystones ran out comfortable winners by eight wickets.