VICTORY FOR PEMBROKE AS POONISH DELIVERS WHEN IT MEHTAS

Poonish Mehta today delivered a Man of the Match performance for Pembroke as they secured the SportsHub Leinster Senior League Cup title for 2022. His 10 over spell of 1/11, backed up by 45 that saw the side to the brink of victory.

Earlier in the day, Clontarf’s skipper Eoghan Delany had won the toss and elected to bat first on what looked like an excellent batting wicket. Ryan Hopkins accounted for the early wicket of Zac Maron for a duck, before Poonish Mehta had his first involvement of the game, taking the big wicket of Delany for just 9.

A partnership of 54 between Aaron McGeehan and Ruan Cronje was broken with the former on 41 as he feathered a Sumit Kumar delivery down the leg-side where Theo Lawson took a good catch, the spirit of the game was in full view as the teenager walked having initially been adjudged not out. This brought Andrew Poynter to the crease, and he played fluently for his 39 from just 30 balls, before being dismissed by Piyush Sharma.

The big moment in the innings came at the end of the next partnership between John McNally and Cronje, as Paul Lawson dismissed the teenager firstly caught by Diarmaid Tucker at deep mid-wicket, before then trapping Ruan Cronje LBW for 65.

When Paul Ryan and Luke Thompson both failed to hang around with Robert Forrest, the score was 209/8 and looked like it would peter out with a whimper. Forrest however had other ideas, and a late flurry of boundaries from him resulted in an unbeaten innings of 48 from just 33 balls, propelling his side to 245/9 in their 50 overs.

There were two wickets for each of Ryan Hopkins, Paul Lawson and Sumit Kumar, but Poonish Mehta’s 1/11 from 10 overs was the pick of some fine bowling spells across the first innings.

In reply Pembroke lost Danny Hogan early doors, caught at second slip by Andrew Poynter from the bowling of Mick Granger, although the big Australian was having some no-ball issues from the Wilfield Road End which allowed Pembroke some decent scoring opportunities, meaning the score progressed to 60/1 from the 10 over Power Play.

Having played fluently, JJ Garth skied a delivery from Ruan Cronje to mid-off where Eoghan Delany took a good catch, before Cronje rounded off his second spell by dismissing Diarmaid Tucker for an excellently compiled 51 thanks to a superb catch at first slip by Bobbo Forrest. This brought Theo Lawson and Poonish Mehta together, and the pair began rotating the score nicely to rebuild the innings.

Lawson then began to sweep, and when he did, the tempo of the scoring increased, this added impetus was matched by Mehta, who in spite of still suffering the ill-effects of last week’s injury, was able to find the boundary as and when it was needed. When Lawson nicked John McNally behind for 42, Clontarf sniffed half a chance, but Rob Kelly’s breezy start to his innings put Pembroke on the front foot yet again.

With the winning line well in sight, Mehta hammered a catch to cover, where Paul Ryan took the catch to dismiss the Pembroke number 5 for an excellent 45, with 13 needed to win, again ‘Tarf sniffed half a chance.

Paul Lawson snuck a single off the final ball of the 48^th over, before then pushing another to get Kelly on strike in the 49^th. Kelly launched a pull shot for 6 towards the Pembroke wall and brought the anticipation levels up a notch, a brace of singles later, Kelly slog swept McNally out over cow-corner for 6 to send the home crowd into raptures in securing a 5 wicket win for Pembroke.

SPORTSHUB SENIOR LEAGUE CUP FINAL

11^TH JUNE – SYDNEY PARADE

Pembroke 249/5, 48.5 overs (D Tucker 51, P Mehta 45, JJ Garth 44, T Lawson 42; R Cronje 2/35, M Granger 2/51)
beat
Clontarf 245/9, 50 overs (R Cronje 65, R Forrest 48*, A McGeehan 41; S Kumar 2/42, P Lawson 2/44, R Hopkins 2/55)
by 5 wickets