Aash Cheema hits a cover drive for 4

 Conor Mullen plays with a straight bat

 

Clare Captain Cheema gets Munster call

 

County Clare cricket captain Aash Cheema has been selected to play for Munster against the Marylebone Cricket Club touring side. The MCC was founded in 1787 and is the home of Cricket based at Lord’s in London. Unfortunately his team mates were unable to mark the event with a victory in the Senior Cup on Sunday as they went down for the second week running to a cannier and more experienced Co. Kery side.

 

Having won the toss Clare choose to field and almost immediately discovered the difference in playing at Senior level as every bad ball was punished and any thing remotely off target was called a wide. Co. Kerry scored only slowly from the bat but the total mounted steadily as the Clare bowlers struggled with the wind and the strict interpretation of the laws. Kerry looked set for score well over 200 but an improvement in the fielding and a superb spell of bowling from Colm Perry slowed them down and limited  the damage to 173 runs. Perry bowled 6 maidens and conceded only 6 runs from his 10 overs but no one else could match his accuracy.

 

At the interval the Clare team were still optimistic and based on their batting the week before at the same ground they had every reason to be. Unfortunately the Kerry bowlers got off to a terrific start and had quickly reduced Clare to 10-4. From that low point it was always going to be a struggle, especially when Cheema was unlucky to be given out leg-before for 29. Some dogged batting by St. Flannan’s student Conor Mullen kept County Clare in the match. His innings was full of maturity as he waited for the rare bad ball and berated his more senior partners who failed to do the same. For a while his partnership with Rob Loxton looked like it might keep the game interesting but the task was beyond them and Mullen finally fell to a sharply taken catch at cover point.

 

The most entertaining innings was from last man Rodwyn Thomas. With the almost impossible task of getting 90 from 17 overs for the last wicket he played some text book shots to all corners off the ground before he finally missed a straight one which bowled him leaving Kerry victorious by 57 runs. Kerry march on to a semi-final against Cork County who scored 270 runs in their 174 run defeat of Waterford IT. Meanwhile the Clare team have until June 7^th to work on their bowling before traveling to Cork to play UCC in the league.

 

Kerry Innings : Deswart 1, Rutland 7, S Javid 6, K Javid 23, Alam 3, Ferrero 14, Ramsey 0, Dar 15, Kissane 17 n.o., Allman 1, Shafique 4 n.o, Extras 72 (b2, lb5, w65) TOTAL 173-9

Clare Bowling: Loxton 8 overs - 1 maiden - 27 runs - 0 wickets, Mullen 5-0-18-1, Imran 5-0-20-2, Mace 7-0-32-1, Rodwyn Thomas 4-0-17-1, Foley 5-0-17-1, Perry 10-6-6-1, Rodryk Thomas 1-0-7-0, Aash 5-0-21-2

 

Clare Innings: Paul Foley 0,  Parznay Parti 1, Jeremy Mace 0, Muhammed Imran 6, Conor Mullen 13, Aash Cheema 29, Rodryk Thomas 0, Rob Loxton 5, Daniel McCullough 1, Colm Perry 8 n.o., Rodwyn Thomas 18, Extras 32 (b1, lb4, w25, nb 2) TOTAL 114 all out

Kerry Bowling : Dar 7-1-11-3, K. Javid 9-0-32-1, Shafique 3-1-9-1, Allman 2-0-17-0, Ramsey 5-3-6-2, Deswart 2-0-9-0, S. Javid 4-0-20-2, Alam 4-0-11-1