07/05/16 Rob Gorvin
Monday 2 May at Jack Harper memorial ground.
Last Saturday the first XI fought hard in a close loss to Balbriggan at college park. Unfortunately the match up between the clubs' second teams last Monday was a lot more one sided, with DU 2 suffering a heavy defeat. Pending exams had weakened the batting a bit, but the bowling line up was as strong as ever on paper. This strength initially shone through. Bowling first, DU had Balbriggan 60-4 approaching drinks with early wickets for Ashwinee Kumar (2-21) and Ramesh Neppalli (3-28). DU should have piled on the pressure after the resumption, however some dips in concentration gifted the Balbriggan batsmen too many lives. The batsmen made the most of Trinity's generosity, and a very small boundary on one side, to pile on 144 for the 5th wicket. Once the partnership broke, Trinity did well to claw the run rate back, with Balbriggan eventually finishing on 231-8 off 45 overs. It had been a tough workout for the bowlers, made that much tougher by fielders not making the most of the chances provided.
Such a large target was always going to be a challenge, and unfortunately the chase came badly unstuck with DU collapsing to 41-5. Some stoic resistance from Rob Gorvin (22) and counter attacking from Sammy H-J (19) and Nitin Rajwar (18) provided some minor positives for DU with the bat. The batting effort ended on 114 all out, a long way short of the target. A loss which might have derailed the 2s title challenge, but we're looking forward to our return to College Park for the remaining games and a strong finish to the season.