Worst start possible for understrength Lisburn

Fielding a team well under full strength due to a number of factors, captain Davey Simpson was brave enough to put Inst into bat after winning the toss on a bright afternoon and after the opening 20 overs were well in with a chance of restricting their opponents to a manageable score but the deep Instonians batting order reacted well and in the end posted a formidable 224 for 8 in their 50 overs. It proved far too many for a fragile Lisburn team and they were dismissed for just 103 in 41 overs.

Having won the toss and fielded, Lisburn with Davey Simpson and Nathan Waller opening the bowling kept Inst well in check and claimed the early wicket of Eric Layard, bowled by Simpson.

Nathan Waller got into the act in the 5th over having James Shannon very well caught by Robert Rankin at mid wicket for 6 and Inst were poorly placed at 23 for 2.

Not for the first time in his career, Andrew White steadied the Instonians innings along with opener Stevenson and between them they added a precious 40 for the 3rd wicket before Stevenson was caught by skipper Simpson off the spin bowling of young debutant Aaron McKeown. The youngster kept his nerve to later return figures of 1 for 47 in his 10 overs and looked a good prospect.

With the dismissal of Stevenson, White was joined by Instonians professional, Carleon Brome and the pair began to put their team into a strong position. They added a rapid 71 in the next 12 overs and turned the game in favour of the home side.

David Simpson rang the changes with his bowling attack with Darryl Brown, Richard McConkey and Carl Williams all having a chance to break the partnership. Eventually, Andrew White was bowled by Brown for a priceless 52 off 85 balls and Instonians had lifted their tally to 134 for 4 after 35 overs.

Professional, Brome scored 12 runs in quick time before he was caught by McConkey off Davey Simpson but during the last 10 overs, Instonians captain Eugene Moleon and Jordan McClurkin.

The rest of the Lisburn bowling lacked any penetration with Aaron McKeown taking 1 for 47. Carl Williams, 0 for 29 off 8 overs and Richard McConkey expensive with 0 for 15 off just 2 overs.

From the opening over of the innings it was obvious that the task wc17 runs as beyond the Lisburn batting order. They lost Richard Simpson, bowled by Moleon for 4 and he was quickly followed by Robert Rankin in the 13th over for 15 off the bowling of Brome and things got even worse in the next 5 overs. First, Darryl Brown was caught off Brome for 6 and Nathan Waller was caught of spinner Rushe for 7 leaving Lisburn in real trouble on 44 for 4 after 19 overs.

Jamie Mulholland, making a return to senior cricket was out cheaply for 3 while the Lisburn lower order could only manage a further 57 runs in the remaining 18 overs off their innings with only Carl Williams with 13 not out showing any resistance as his team were all out for a very poor 103 in the 42nd over, beaten by the very large margin of 121 runs in their first outing of the season.

Top scorer for Lisburn in the greatly under effort was skipper Davey Simpson who added 17 runs batting at number 4 to add to his 4 for 45 again leading his defeated troops from the front.

Lisburn need to quickly correct this defeat and a trip to Ballymena is the chance to grab points against a team which might well struggle to keep afloat in the highly competitive 8 team league.

Instonians Innings

E.Layard b D.Simpson.................................3

J.Stevenson dt D.Simpson b A.McKeown...23

J.Shannon ct Rankin b D.Simpson.............6

A.White b Brown..........................................52

N.Smith ct Elliott b D.Simpson..................44

C.Brome ct McConkey b D.Simpson.......12

J.McClurkin ct and b Waller........................13

E.Moleon not out........................................35

Z.Rushe ct Ferguson b Brown.....................4

R.McCarthy not out......................................5

Extra..............................................................27

Total 224 for 8 after 50 overs.

Fall of wks 1-6 2-23 3-63 4-134 5-151 6-163 7-202 8-216

Lisburn bowling D.Simpson 10-0-45-4 N.Waller 10-2-29-1 D.Brown 10-0-48-2 A.McKeown 10-1-47-1 C.Williams 8-0-29-0 R.McConkey 2-0-15-0

Lisburn Innings

R.Simpson b Moleon....................................4

R.Rankin ct McCurry b Brome.....................15

D.Brown ct Shannon b Brome...................6

D.Simpson ct Layard b Shannon...............17

N.Waller ct McCarthy b Rushe..................7

J.Mulholland lbw b Rushe..........................3

R.McConkey ct White b Shannon..............4

C.Williams not out.....................................13

G.Elliott ct Brome b Shannon....................5

A.McKeown b White.....................................1

Extras............................................................22

Total 103 all out in 41.4 overs.

Fall of wkts 1-13 2-29 3-35 4-44 5-54 6-74 7-74 8-89 9-99 10-103

Instonians bowling N.Smith 6-3-7-0 E.Moleon 5-0-16-1 Z.Rushe 10-4-15-3 C.Brome 4-0-23-2 A.White 8.4-3-13-1 J.Shannon 8-1-27-3

Result- Instonians won by 121 runs.