Limerick’s 2nd XI cruised to a comprehensive 10-wicket victory on Saturday afternoon as they saw off 9-man Harlequins at the Manor Fields, Adare to pick up full points in their final league match of the season. Limerick haven’t recorded a 10-wicket victory in a number of seasons as a low-scoring 35-run target just needed the trusted opening pair of Karthik Karur and Arslan Sayyam to claim a decisive win. With one round of fixtures remaining, the destiny of the league will be in the hands of Cork County who incidentally, face Cork Harlequins this Saturday.
Cork Harlequins elected to bat from the toss but submitted to the opening pair of Ramoji Alla and William Shields, who accumulated a number of dot balls and put early pressure on the scoreboard for the opposition. Alla brought his terrific form into the game with a wicket with the first ball of the innings, as Jaitley feathered through to the keeper. Alla backed this up in the sixth over, bowling Searra for 9 runs at 14-2. Limerick put the foot down heavily at this point, two runs outs at the turn of the tenth over were complimented by Mehmood’s wicket of McLaughlin in the 13th to leave the score at 31-5.
It was all over in a matter of moments, a maiden from Mehmood was followed by Hussein’s introduction into the attack, who took two wickets in 3.4 overs to see the end of the innings with just 34 on the board.
Limerick 2nd XI vs Cork Harlequins (Top row, l-r): Asif Hussein, Waqas Mehmood, Ramoji Alla, Nishant Kumar (Capt. & wk), Manoj Sharma, Dharmesh Sharma, Arslan Sayyam, William Shields. (Front row, l-r) Karthik Sridhar, Sumukh Venkatesh, Karthik Karur, Mohit Malik.
The response was brief but professional with the bat, centrally commanded by Sayyam who hit 5x4s on his way to an unbeaten 27 from 24 deliveries as he and Karur made light work of the small total. It ends a league campaign for Nishant Kumar with just one defeat in 11 matches, a tremendous feat for him and the team.
RESULT| MCU Division One.
We defeated Cork Harlequins by 10 wickets today.
Cork Harlequins 2: 34 all out off 18.4 overs.
Waqas Mehmood 2-3
Asif Hussein 2-5
Limerick 2: 35-0 off 8.5 overs.
Arslan Sayyam 27*
Karthik Karur 3*
* * *
Limerick’s 4th XI continued their late season run with another victory on Saturday afternoon as they saw off the challenge of local rivals Limerick Blasters in Ballyneety to climb another few places up the Division 3A table. Limerick elected to bowl on a bone-dry outfield with confidence high from recent bowling performances.
Darshan Dwarakanath ripped through the top order, like Alla taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game to set the tone. He broke a second-wicket stand of 55 with the dismissal of Arackal before the duo of Waqar Ahmed and Shravan Chandrashekharaiah broke through the middle order to leave Blasters flustered on 84-6. A late rally from the tail got Blasters to a par score of 145 but albeit with 10 overs left to bat.
Limerick responded with consolidated partnerships throughout, with an opening stand of 36 followed with a second wicket stand of 49, the visitors were more than halfway to the target with a healthy score of 87-2 just before drinks. The blow of Ahmed just before the break did not falter Limerick as a fourth wicket partnership of 59 runs between Chandrashekaraiah and Dwarakanath brought home a comprehensive 7-wicket victory from Corker’s Oval.
RESULT| MCU Division Three.
We defeated Limerick Blasters by 7 wickets today.
Limerick Blasters 3: 145 all out off 29.1 overs.
Jeevan Krishna 3-16
Waqar Ahmed 2-16
Limerick 4: 148-3 off 27.4 overs.
Darshan Dwarankanath 33*
Vinaykumar Nagaraju 28
* * *
The rescheduled fixture between Cork County and Limerick took place in Adare on Sunday with both teams looking to finish a successful first, competitive season on a high.
Holly Westmoreland resumed her captaincy and elected to bowl, having won the toss on her return to the side. Her opening bowlers did not let her down as some tight spells from the pair of Saadia Mehmood and Sana George yielded just 11 runs from the opening four overs. The County innings ebbed and flowed and despite not taking any wickets, the hosts held the visitors to a score of 44 without loss at the end of the tenth over giving them a target of 45 to chase. Wesmoreland herself finished with 0-7 from 3 overs and the late spells from Maria Van de Munckhof and Sheena Van de Munckhof conceded 5 and 9 runs respectively.
The opening pair of Maria Van de Munkhof and Sanjana Shashikumar fell early with the score at 15-2, but a middle order stand of 31 runs between Westmoreland and George saw Limerick home with four wickets and just a little under three overs to spare. The win sees Limerick complete back to back wins over Cork County and their third win on the bounce to end a very rewarding season.
RESULT| MCU Women's T10 League.
We defeated Cork County by 8 wickets today.
Cork County W: 44-0 off 10 overs.
Saadia Mehmood 0-3
Maria Van de Munckhof 0-5
Limerick W: 46-2 off 7.1 overs.
Holly Westmoreland 19*
Sana George 11*
* * *
One fixture on the youth front this weekend saw the meeting of Cork Harlequins and Limerick at the neutral venue of Midleton on Saturday afternoon. Limerick were put into bat and made a strong start as Skandan Laksmanan and Yousaf Ramay got things up and running despite the early loss of Ghufran Chaudhry.
The longevity of the 30-over game was something which suited Limerick’s top order, with Robert McCutcheon making 40 from 52 deliveries to add some impetus to the innings and more importantly, runs on the board. Limerick were helped with the concession of 34 extra on the part of Quins who experienced no restbite after the departure of Lakshmanan as a pinch innings from the returning Riyan Shah got Limerick to 127-4. Sohaib Akhtar’s late cameo of 29 from 29 balls (3x4s and 1x6) saw them reach 186-5 at the innings break.
Limerick U15 XI vs Cork Harlequins (l-r): Chinmay Shinde, Atharvan Alageasan, Charlie Wharton, Yousaf Ramay (Capt.), Sohaib Akhtar, Ghufran Chaudhry, Robert McCutcheon, Riyan Shah, Kulwant Singh, Skandan Lakshmanan (wk), Faizan Chaudhry, Arham Ullah, Apooravan Alagesan.
A run-rate of above a run a ball may have initially seemed daunting but Quins found some early acceleration with their top order reaching 80-1 at the turn of the 12th over.
Limerick secured the breakthrough in the form of Ghufran Chaudhry, who bowled Namish Khan for 30 and dually picked up the wicket of Brokenshire just three deliveries later. A spell which warranted all three wickets, brother Faizan came on late to pick up two with Alagesan, Shinde and Shah all grabbing one a piece as a valiant Quins fell ultimately short with a final score of 152 all out.
RESULT| MCU U15 Superleague.
We defeated Cork Harlequins by 34 runs today.
Limerick U15: 186-5 off 30 overs.
Skandan Lakshmanan 44
Robert McCutcheon 40
Cork Harlequins U15: 152 all out off 28.2 overs.
Ghufran Chaudhry 3-15
Faizan Chaudhry 2-12
* * *
The two adult teams out of action last weekend will be back on the field this Sunday with the 2nd and 3rd XI sides not playing. The 1st XI will host Cork County in Adare with an 11am start as the 3rds face off against the same opponents in the Mardyke, starting at 11am also.
