It was a spectacular day in Sydney Parade as JJ Garth’s outstanding performance was the catalyst for an 84 run victory for Pembroke over Merrion in the semi-final of the SportsHub Senior League Cup.
Opening the batting Garth made 86, before effecting four run outs, two with emphatic direct hits, in the second innings as he turned the Merrion batting effort on it’s head after they had gotten off to a strong start.
Earlier in the day, Pembroke’s skipper Theo Lawson had won the toss and elected to bat first, and having lost Diarmaid Tucker in the first over to an excellent catch from Mike Lewis in the gully off the bowling of Muhammad Sinan, Lorcan Tucker joined JJ Garth at the crease, and the pair got the innings up and running in style. Tucker raced to a run-a-ball 62 in a partnership of 117 with Garth, before he fell LBW to Tom Stanton having misjudged a pull shot.
Garth was joined by skipper Lawson, the pair of which added an extremely fluent 59 runs, Lawson dominating the effort as he made 35, there was a calamitous run out however as both batters ended up at the same end, with Lawson ultimately sacrificing his wicket to keep Garth at the crease. He had moved past 80 and was joined by Poonish Mehta.
Garth finally fell for 86 with the score on 195, however with just over 11 overs to go, there was still plenty of time for the home side to make a good score. And that they did, thanks to Mehta’s excellent unbeaten 68 from just 48 balls, he elevated the side to 275/5 from their 50 overs.
Those runs did however seem to come at something of a cost, as Mehta hobbled off at the end of the innings having been struck on the ankle by a run out attempt. When the Pembroke overseas man delivered the first ball of the second innings to Jack Carty, then pulled up again, the home side would have been understandably anxious to lose their main seam bowler.
Ryan Hopkins replaced Mehta, and in spite of taking the big wicket of Stephen Doheny, couldn’t control the efforts of Jack Carty and Mike Lewis, as the pair were able to find the boundary regularly throughout the opening 11 overs. At that point, Joe Prendergast came into the attack, and JJ Garth burst into life at backward point.
Firstly he ran Mike Lewis out in a mix-up with Jack Carty, before Swapnil Modgil pushed the ball towards cover point, Garth swooped, picked-up and threw the ball in one motion, demolishing the bowlers end stumps to see the back of the Merrion number 4 for just a single. Franco Marais joined Carty, and the pair managed to add another 15 runs before they took on Garth again, this time to see Carty run out for 42, Merrion now 89/4 and in all sorts of bother.
It had become clear that an injury to Niranjan Shankar when fielding had meant he wouldn’t be able to bat, so Pembroke at that stage needed just 5 more wickets to win the game. Sean Stanton then plinked a short ball from Donncha Tucker down the throat of sub-fielder Dale McDonough to be the 5th wicket to fall. Muhammad Sinan added 36 for the 6th wicket with Marais before becoming the 2nd man to fall to Tucker’s left arm spin.
Joe Prendergast completed his injury-hindered 10 overs for just 28 runs, and shortly after Marais was dismissed for 38 by Paul Lawson to a fine diving catch by Ryan Hopkins at cow-corner. Amish Sidhu and Tom Stanton added a slow 36 for the 8th wicket before, unbelievably, Sidhu took JJ Garth on for yet another kamikaze single and was run out for 16. Just 11 balls later, Paul Lawson got in on the run out action, dismissing Hugh Kennedy for a duck to secure the 84 run win for Pembroke, and a home appearance in the Senior League Cup Final.
MCNALLY SEES CLONTARF THROUGH IN CASTLE AVENUE CLIFF-HANGER
Meanwhile in Castle Avenue, North County batted first and saw contributions from each of their top 4 batters guide them to 182 before losing their 6th wicket, Jonno Andrews was that man to fall for 48, before John Mooney’s 39* guided the tail to 233/7 in their 50 overs. Ruan Cronje was the pick of the bowlers for ‘Tarf, with his 3/46 yet again underlining his leg-spinning qualities.
There was a change of tack at the top of the innings for the home side, as Fionn Hand and PJ Moor opened the batting, the latter making a fluent 64 from just 53 balls, of which 58 runs came in boundaries. David Delany and Ruan Cronje made 35 and 31 respectively as Clontarf moved to 160/3 and looked for all the world as if it was just a question of how long it would take them to score the runs.
That wasn’t to be the case however, as a comeback spell of Abdul Ghaffar taking three wickets of Delany, Cronje and then ‘Bobbo Forrest put County right back in the game. However a heroic knock of 45* from John McNally saw the home side manage to put together a 1 wicket victory with 19 balls to spare in the innings.
SPORTSHUB SENIOR LEAGUE CUP SEMI-FINALS
AT SYDNEY PARADE
Pembroke 275/5, 50 overs (JJ Garth 86, P Mehta 68*, L Tucker 62; T Stanton 2/29)
beat
Merrion 191/9 (all out), 43.1 overs (J Carty 42, F Marais 38; D Tucker 2/43, JJ Garth 4 run outs)
by 84 runs
AT CASTLE AVENUE
Clontarf 236/9, 46.5 overs (PJ Moor 64, J McNally 45*; A Ghaffar 3/48, U Azhar 2/30)
beat
North County 233/7, 50 overs (J Andrews 48, J Mooney 39*; R Cronje 3/46)
by 1 wicket
SPORTSHUB SENIOR LEAGUE CUP FINAL
JUNE 11TH – SYDNEY PARADE
PEMBROKE VS CLONTARF