Saturday brought the Leps to Halverstown, where they posted 152/6dec.( Roland Budd 80). The Kildare men looked set to gobble Charles Lysaght's generously dangled carrot until Budd struck again, this time to catch young Josh Uddin in the deep for 40. In a cracking match, Halverstown came up 6 runs short.
The 2011 renewal of The Ranji Trophy took place at College Park on Sunday. Samir Dutts correct call saw the Indians bat on a wicket fit for Tendulkar, beneath a threatening sky. The bauld Sachin would not have done much better than his countrymen Simmi Singh and Manu Kumar who raced to 49 in 6 overs before Hugh McDonnell bowled Singh for 31. Joined by his skipper Kumar rattled to 46 when he was dismissed in a most unlikely way.........caught Forrest(Snr!), bowled McGeehan(Dell!). Poor Manu got some send-off. The wickets of Yogash & Ras brought the Leprechauns back in, but M.Singh's 51 and Dutt's 65** got the Indians to 227/5, a tough ask for the Leps, after a lovely eastern "tea" kindly served by JAIPUR restaurants.
At 82/2 in 14 the Leps looked set but (as ever) the Indian slows applied the hand break inducing a slump to 148/7. The said Manu had the last laugh removing Eoghah Delany(53) and an unhappy Tomás Murphy(42), Leps all out 177. Ann Chambers presented her trophy to Samir (for a 2nd time). The Leps presented her a with copy of Ranji's flag, bearing(appropriately) a white elephant!