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MAGHERAMASON – Shane Getkate was in inspired form for North West Warriors as they continued their assault on the Inter-Provincial T20 Trophy with a six-wicket DLS victory over a struggling Northern Knights team, while in the second game of the day Munster Reds remain unbeaten following a highly dramatic tie with Leinster Lightning at Bready Cricket Club.

Game 1: North West Warriors v Northern Knights

An 80-run third-wicket partnership between Shane Getkate and Stephen Doheny helped North West Warriors make it three wins from four games in the Inter-Provincial Trophy following a six-wicket DLS victory over Northern Knights after the game was reduced to 14 overs due to persistent rain showers.

In extremely blustery conditions, the hosts won the toss and captain Andy McBrine decided to bowl first – with the Warriors delighted to welcome back the returning Irish international Craig Young after recovering from injury. The Knights gave a debut to South African-born 20 year-old Cade Carmichael.

John Matchett and James McCollum opened the batting for the Knights, but they didn’t get off to the best of starts, losing a wicket in the first over. Matchett started well enough by hitting an excellent shot for 4 with the fourth ball of the day, but then fell two balls later to Ryan Macbeth.

Strong winds were causing havoc for both batters and bowlers, and that was particularly evident in the fourth over when Morgan Topping struck a massive shot over mid-off which held up in the wind – the ball plugged in the wet outfield with the Knights only scoring two runs rather than what was seemingly destined for a boundary.

Conor Olphert was getting plenty of movement off the seam early on, as he restricted the Knights to singles, while Young (2-39) made a welcome return to the side in the 6th over. Coming in from the pavilion end and with the wind behind him it didn’t take long for him to strike. Topping (20) scored 10 runs in the over, hitting a big 6 off the middle of the bat and then followed it up with a boundary off two shorter deliveries. However, he fell with the very next ball, the last of the powerplay, striking the ball in the air down to third and Macbeth took the catch.

With the Knights needing to consolidate their innings McCollum and Ruhan Pretorius settled in for a solid 43-run partnership for the third wicket as the moved on to 83-2 after 11 overs. Pretorius looked comfortable, despite being dropped twice, but his luck eventually ran out in the 12th over when on 30 he hit one to a diving Graham Kennedy at deep mid-wicket, off the bowling of McBrine, to leave the Knights on 88-3.

The big-hitting Mark Adair (7) then came to the crease and proceeded to go into attack mode but unfortunately for the Knights he didn’t hang around long, as Getkate took a catch at the extra-cover boundary.

Neil Rock (9) was out to an excellent diving catch by Nathan McGuire, before McCollum, who was settling in to anchor the innings, finally fell in the 19th over clean-bowled by Graham Hume for 49 off 44 balls.

Ross Adair finished with a cameo 16 off 11 towards the end, and the Knights finished their 20 overs on 148-7.

Hume was excellent on the day with figures of 1-9 from his 3 overs, with McBrine contributing two wickets for 22 runs. In conditions that Young said were the worst he’d ever bowled in, despite taking 2-39.

In their reply the Warriors suffered an early blow with Nathan McGuire (5) having to retire injured after he was hit on the elbow from a ball bowled by Mark Adair in the 2nd over.

Chaos ensued in the next over when Jared Wilson was run out by Matthew Humphreys. An overthrow by the fielder saw Wilson decide to go for a run which wasn’t there, and Humphreys had no problem knocking off the bails. That left the Warriors on 12-2 and in a spot of bother.

Shane Getkate then came to the crease to join Stephen Doheny and they set into the task of chasing down the amended total. Doheny took on Josh Manley (2-35) and scored 11 runs off him in the third over to get the Warriors innings underway with intent.

Player of the Match Getkate raced to 46* (including 3 fours and 3 sixes) in just 26 balls with further bad weather closing in. Getkate and Doheny’s excellent 80-run partnership came to an end when Doheny (35) rushed his shot and was caught by Mark Adair out on the boundary. A disappointed William McClintock went for the dreaded duck, caught behind with his first ball as Manley took two wickets in two balls. Hume (6) was caught and bowled by Adair late on, but the Knights couldn’t remove the excellent Getkate.

All that was left was for the captain Andy McBrine (5*) to come in and score the winning runs, hitting a lovely shot past mid-wicket for four, as the reigning champions keep up their push for more T20 honours.

MATCH SUMMARY

North West Warriors v Northern Knights, Inter-Provincial Trophy, Bready, 10 June 2022

Knights 148-7 (20 overs; J McCollum 49, R Pretorius 30; A McBrine 2-22)
Warriors 111-4 (13.1 Overs; S Getkate 46*, S Doheny 35; J Manley 2-35)

North West Warriors won by 6 wickets (DLS) with 5 balls to spare

See full scorecard

Game 2: Munster Reds v Leinster Lightning

There was nothing to separate the still undefeated Munster Reds and the Leinster Lightning in a thrilling match to close day one of the summer’s second IP20 Festival – the match ending in a tie. Requiring three to win off the last ball, Curtis Campher was found two yards short attempting to run the third after a flat throw from Harry Tector. The delivery was a fitting reflection of a high-octane match that ebbed and flowed throughout.

The scheduled 3.30pm start time was delayed by an hour to 4.30pm because of afternoon showers, with the match reduced 18 overs aside. As has been the trend in the IP20 – and with rain in the air and teams preferring to chase in rain affected games – the Reds chose to bowl first after winning the toss. The Reds announced an unchanged XI from that which beat the Warriors by 100 runs to complete a clean sweep in the first IP Festival in Comber a fortnight ago, while the Lightning, who won just one of their three games, brought in left-arm seamer Mikey O’Reilly, just five days after making his loan move from the Reds.

Andrew Balbirnie started at a rate of knots, hitting 15 off the first over from the rapid David Delany, the highlight a back foot punch over point that looked like a merge of a cut shot and a back-foot drive, bouncing once before clearing the rope. The Ireland skipper then cleared cover and mid-wicket in a ‘lightning’ start. Balbirnie fell for 19 in the next over, however, after failing to clear mid-off off Curtis Campher.

Singh (4) fell in the fourth over, edging onto his stumps while attempting to paddle Tyrone Kane over the wicketkeeper’s head, before Seamus Lynch fell for an enterprising 21 off 15 balls in the sixth over, his lofted drive finding the long off fielder a few yards inside the rope.

Intent on scoring quickly, the Lightning weren’t able to string together a substantive partnership in the middle overs of the innings, although Harry Tector (33 off 23) threatened to create the momentum the Lightning craved before perishing trying to beat midwicket (and the wind), to be caught by Frost off the bowling of Delany with the innings precariously placed at 88-5 off 10.3 overs. The leg spinner, whose approach of bowling flat and into the pitch was an effective formula that his counterpart Gavin Hoey would later emulate, took a miserly 2-18 off his four overs – by some distance the pick of the Reds’ bowlers.

Lorcan Tucker (3) fell to a superlative piece of fielding – run out by a Tyrone Kane direct-hit at the non-strikers end from point, while captain George Dockrell (8) fell caught at deep midwicket off Campher. The Lightning found the necessary firepower in 20-year-old Gavin Hoey, the all rounder top scoring with a 26-ball 39 that included 4 fours and 2 sixes, including an imperious six over the sight screen that went on to hit a car driving along the Mason Road. Lightning finished on 149-8 off their 18 overs.

A further rain interruption meant that the Reds required an adjusted target of 138 runs from 16 overs. If the Lightning were gung-ho, the Reds were far more measured, accumulating 41 without loss off the first five overs. PJ Moor and Ford would put on 52 before Ford fell for 22 off 17 in the seventh over to the leg spin of Hoey. The Pembroke man’s first ball ripped past Ford’s outside edge and the next rattled the stumps as Ford shaped to play a reverse sweep, then missed trying to execute a conventional slog sweep.

Delany (20 off 15) kept the Reds ticking along soon before PJ Moor fell to Hoey for 40, pinned LBW while attempting a reverse sweep. Requiring 52 off the last five overs, Kevin O’Brien (12 off 4) launched Simi Singh for back-to-back sixes straight down the ground, before perishing attempting a third. Runs came merrily at one end while Hoey claimed 2-13 from three overs at the other.

Curtis Campher – who Jack Carty failed to catch under a swirler at long on – hit two sixes over midwicket, one of Barry McCarthy and another off Hoey (2-24), who bowled the penultimate over to set up a nail-biting crescendo as the Reds required eight off the last over, to be bowled by Josh Little.

Little executed expertly in the final over, bowling fast, full and straight, his first ball hitting the base of Tyrone Kane’s stumps. A dot and then single brought Campher on strike with six required off three, all of which went for two. The first towards long on, the second edged to long leg and the last to Tector whose run out from long on would complete the IP20’s first ever tie, and set up an exciting two days of action ahead.

MATCH SUMMARY

Leinster Lightning v Munster Reds, Inter-Provincial Trophy, Bready, 10 June 2022

Lightning 149-8 (18 overs; G Hoey 39, H Tector 29; G Delany 2-18)
Reds 137-6 (16 overs; PJ Moor 40, C Campher 29; G Hoey 2-24)

Game tied (DLS)

See full scorecard

Gerard Mulreaney
The Lightning and Reds played out a thrilling tie
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Connaught