Malahide CC XI - 182 for 5 (19.4 Overs) beat Edinburgh University CC - 178 for 3 (20 overs) by 5 wickets.
Malahide - Greg Ford - 57, Cameron Shoebridge - 54no, Matt Ford - 41, David O'Halloran - 22
EUCC - Paul Thirlwell - 74
On a glorious summer evening up on The Lady Acre, a strong Malahide CC XI gained a nailbiting victory over Edinburgh University CC who are currently on their Summer Tour in Ireland. After a few weeks of warm, dry weather and with a freshly cut outfield this was always likely to be a high scoring contest and neither side disappointed. Having won the toss the Edinburgh skipper unsurprisingly made the decision to bat first in what were clearly perfect conditions. Their openers made steady progress but were kept in check by good opening spells from Conor Gibbons and Ben Askew, they were well backed up by the first change bowlers, Vikas Purbiya and Cameron Shoebridge who both took a wicket a piece to slow the students progress. However, with a lightening fast outfield, the batting side were getting good value for their shots and Edinburgh's number 3, Paul Thirlwell (who made an excellent 74) began to find the boundary with increasing frequency as the innings progressed. Wickets were hard to come by for all the bowlers (Malahide used 8 in all) and The University finished their 20 overs setting a very challenging total of 178 for 3, 179 to win.
Requiring almost 9 an over from the start it was important that openers, David O'Halloran and Greg Ford got Malahide off to a fast start which they managed despite being up against some very decent quick bowling from the students. Malahide had reached 38 in the 5th over and making good progress when Edinburgh University struck twice, firstly David O'H skied a catch to the keeper after a well made 22 and then Keith Reynolds was out to a superb ball at the start of the next over . This double blow slowed the home team's progress as Greg and skipper Cameron Shoebridge set about rebuilding the innings. The 3rd wicket pairing played some great shots and ran hard between the wickets but the quality of the Edinburgh bowling meant that the required run rate was steadily climbing. In the 15th over, just as he was beginning to open his shoulders, Greg was dismissed on 57 with an excellent catch on the boundary that was heading for a maximum before it was plucked out of the sky. This left Malahide on 115 for 3 with 4 1/2 overs remaining so just the small matter of 14 runs an over required. However, one of the more pleasing sights we have got used to at The Village this Summer is that of Matt Ford despatching opposition bowlers to all parts of the ground so as he strode to the wicket that equation appeared highly unlikely but certainly not impossible. Not bothering with the niceties of having a look at a few balls, Matt set about showing once again that there aren't many boundaries or bowlers that can contain the quality of his power hitting. When he was dismissed in the 19th over he had only faced 11 balls but had accumulated 41 runs (4 X 6's and 3 X 4's), not surprisingly the Edinburgh skipper was finding it hard to catch the eye of his bowlers so he bravely took the responsibility himself which didn't do his figures any favours.So what had appeared virtually impossible a few overs earlier was now just difficult as Malahide required 13 to win off the last over but luckily for Malahide, Cameron as the established batsman found himself on strike. In the end the skipper made it look easy as he hit the first 4 balls of the over for 2,6,4,4 to get his side over the line remarkably with 2 balls to spare, finishing on 54 not out.
It's probably fair to say that tne University were a bit shell shocked but it had been a great game played in a really good spirit and in absolutely perfect conditions. Edinburgh had about 30 in the tour party and they all enjoyed the warm Village hospitality in the club house afterwards and demosntrated a wide array of highly complicated drinking games. They have clearly been blessed with the weather in Ireland this week and they have had a fantatstic few days of cricket but it seemed to be a unanimous opinion that their visits to Malahide had been a highlight (they had trained on the main ground earlier in the week) of the tour. All in all it was a memorable occasion for both teams and their supporters.
MALAHIDE CC XI : Cameron Shoebridge (Capt), Greg Ford, David O'Halloran, Keith Reynolds, Matt Ford, Paul Agnibesh, Ben Askew, Vikas Purbiya, Sean Drumm, Ryan Condron, Zak woods-Oliver, Conor Gibbons.