Galway cricketers bat their way to cup success at last

THE County Galway Cricketers made history when they overcame Clare to win the Munster Senior Cup for the first time last weekend.

Played at the Mardyke in Cork city, the Munster Senior Cup Final has regularly been a bitter-sweet occasion for Galway for over three decades – they have regularly reached the final without lifting the trophy in the past.

Galway captain Umair Chaudhray praised his team’s convincing performance over Clare and said he was hugely honoured to become the first man to lift the Cup in the club’s history.

For wicket keeper, Ronan Mahon, it was a very special day as he has been on the losing side more than once for Galway since 2000. Both teams had overcome all of the Cork teams in the previous rounds.

Co Galway batted first and reached a total of 280 for 7 wickets in their 50 Overs. Shariq Nasim registered 56, Danish Ali 45, Subbu 40, Conor Mullen 45, Jaffer 23, Umair Chaudhary 19.

For Clare, Farman bagged four wickets, Kashif took two wickets and Bilal claimed one wicket. In reply, Co Clare were all out for 182 Runs in 45.3 Overs. Farukh 20, Tarik 39, Sukhpal 10, Bilal 18 and Farman was top scorer with 42.

The bowlers for Galway: Danish, Iliff, Rohit, and Muhammad Ali took a wicket each, Tabish took two wickets and Subbu took three which, together with his forty runs, made him Man of the Match.

County Galway Team: 1 Danish Ali. 2 Shariq Nasim 3 Conor Mullen 4 Subramanyam R 5 Muhammad Ali 6 Umair Chaudhary (C) 7 Rohit Bisla 8 Jaffer Hussain 9 Iliff Sumit 10 Tabish Ali 11 Ronan Mahon (WK)

Meanwhile, the Midland Cricket Association’s two knock-out trophies were decided this week. The Wallace Cup (for senior teams) saw County Galway pipped at the post by Mullingar in mid-week, losing by an agonising one run margin in the semi final.

However, Galway’s second team won the final of their competition against a strong Dundalk team, bringing home the Dick O’Neill Cup to Galway last Sunday. The victory was thanks largely to Subbu’s 104 not out who compiled well over half the Galway total himself.

In a tense final few overs in Bagnelstown in Carlow, the Dundalk lads fell just 8 runs short of the Galway target of 186.

Dundalk’s skipper, Andy Williams, threatened to take the game away from Galway with a brutal display of big hitting until Saleh Khan, fielding on the boundary threw in a lightning bolt return to keeper, Ruwan Migel who ran out the hapless Williams.

It was a turning point in the match and after that Dundalk struggled to keep up with the required rate against excellent bowling from Galway’s Mitul, Khan and Waseem.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.