First X1
Our First X1 headed to a windy and freezing Inch on Saturday to take on our neighbours North County.
The Hills won the toss and decided to bowl. Two early wickets for Dylan Blignaut had the travelling supporters expectant. That changed with the introduction of Malcolm Nofal and Andrew Sheridan who put on an excellent 60 run partnership before Nofal (39) fell to the bowling of debutant Matthew Weldon. Sheridan was joined at the crease by Club Captain Eddie Richardson who combined to put on a crucial 88 run partnership before Sheridan (50) departed with the score on 153. Richardson went on to make an undefeated 116 including 6 fours and 5 sixes. Contributions from John Mooney (18) and Jonathan Andrews (10) brought the final total to 272 for 6 in the allotted 50 overs. Best bowling for The Hills was Tomás Rooney Murphy with 2 for 38, Matthew Weldon with 1 for 49, Ashley Bain 1 for 49 and Sameer Dutt 0 for 27 off 8.
In reply The Hills came just 4 runs short on 268. Main contributors with the bat were Mark Donegan (87), Dylan Blignaut (48), Murray Commins (31) and Andrew Kavanagh (26). Abdul Ghaffar took 4 wickets for 61, Malcolm Nofal took 2 wickets for 28 and Uzman Azhar too 2 wickets for 44.
At The Vineyard on Saturday the Fourth X1 faced Balbriggan and having won the toss decided to have a bowl. Balbriggan went on to set a target of 152. Rebecca Gough took 2 for 27 and Ashad Farooqi took 3 for 28. In reply The Hills accounted for the target with the loss of 4 wickets in the 37th over. Biggest contributors were Conor O’Brien* (40), Joseph Russell (49), Cole Daddy (22) and Jason Magee * (18).
Yesterday the Second X1 travelled to Newtownforbes in County Longford. Losing the toss we were asked to bat. Bhavesh Lakhotia (59), Andrew Kavanagh (67), Will Archer (41), Mark Dwyer(38) and Sam Smyth (16) contributed to a fine total of 261. In reply Longford could only manage to get to 246, 15 runs short. 2 wickets each for Gavin Morgan, Jonathan Tall, Will Archer and Athar Farooqi broke the back of the Longford reply.
Yesterday in the Vineyard the Third X1 took on the men from Kilkenny. Batting first Kilkenny set a formidable target of 292 in 44.2 overs. Shoaib Tariq with 151 did most of the damage with 13 fours and 9 sixes. 4 wickets for 50 from Asad Khan was the pick of The Hills bowling. With such a big target we needed some of our batsmen to score big! Lorcan Woodhouse (56), Shehzad Hussain (34), Ashad Farooqi* (80) and Muhammad Hassan* (43) contributed hugely to our eventual success in the 43rd over with 5 wickets to spare.
In Margaretstown our Fifth X1 were defeated by 2 wickets to Finglas.
