Irish Senior Cup despair as Ardmore and Donemana lose out
It has turned out to be the feared ‘first round whitewash’ for North West teams in the Arachas Irish Senior Cup this season after Ardmore and Donemana lost out on their travels in Sunday’s two replays.
The Bleachgreen side were second best at the Mardyke- going down by 37 runs after Syed Aiman’s 87 and 35 from Eshan O’Sullivan saw the home side bat first and set a target of 220-9.
Edrees Kharotai (3-29) was best with the ball for the visitors with Aviwe Mgijima, Dharm Singh and Rachit Gaur all picking up two wickets each.
Overseas man Mgijima top scored with 39 in Ardmore’s reply; but despite 29 from Harry Zimmerman and 25 from Conor King- they just couldn’t get close enough and finished all out on 183.
Byron McDonough with three wickets and Aiman, Nabeel Anjum and Stefano Di Bartelomeo with two each, steered County into Round 2.
Gary McClintock’s 61 (5 fours, 3 sixes) along with 43 from DJ Dougherty, 28 from Joe Robinson, Gary Neely’s 27 and 22 from Kyle Dougherty got Donemana to 241 all out at Middle Road against Carrickfergus.
Michael Rippon (4-34) was in fine for with the ball for the hosts as he and Alex Haggan (2-48) kept the North West side at arm’s length.
Carrick’s reply was dominated by two batters- one a former North West man himself- as Craig Averill and Iain Parkhill both scored 72 in the chase.
The NCU team were able to coast home from there despite a fighting effort with the ball from Neely (2-31) in a six-wicket victory.
In the National Cup, Glendermott were unable to add to the existing four survivors as they lost by 5 wickets in Athlone.
Skipper Ben Mills hit 70 (9 fours, 2 sixes) and Jake Montgomery 44 as the Rectory outfit recovered from 47-5 to post 190 all out.
Awais Khalily (4-46) and Nikhil Matta (3-33) were best with the ball for the Midlanders before an unbeaten century from Naveenrohith Nijayan (116*- 12 fours, 7 sixes) settled the contest.
The opener shared in stands with Himanshu Pardeshi (28) and Khalily (33*) as Athlone progressed to Round 2.
