By Scott Symington
ON Sunday (14 July) Dundrum Cricket Club Men’s 1st XI secured a five-wicket victory over Ards and Donaghadee in a tight contest.
The win maintains Dundrum’s push for promotion from Section 2.
Dundrum made the journey to Donaghadee in glorious sunshine. New captain for the day Stian Swanepoel won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Dundrum opened the bowling with James Wright and Stian Swanepoel.
Ards and Donaghadee opened the batting with Michael Martin and Phil McNamara.
Ards and Donaghadee got off to a fantastic start with both batters finding easy runs in the opening overs.
They reached 41 without losing a wicket inside the first ten overs.
Dundrum struggled in the opening overs to build any pressure, allowing the batters to get off to a good start.
Scott Symington and Stuart Campbell came into the bowling attack for Dundrum, managing to slow the run rate but unable to find a breakthrough.
The Ards and Donaghadee opening batters added 101 for the opening wicket before McNamara was bowled off the bowling of Rhodri Phillips for 29. Sam Ingham joined Martin at the crease, adding a further 30 runs with Martin.
Ingham was then dismissed off the bowling of Stian Swanepoel for 17.
This left Ards and Donaghadee with 130 for 2 from 27 overs and in prime position to make a big score.
However, the dismissal of Ingham led to a collapse from Ards and Donaghadee as they lost five wickets for only ten runs to fall to 140 for 6 from 32 overs.
Martin fell for an excellent 62 off the bowling of Ged Donnell. Dundrum looked to finish Ards and Donaghadee off quickly. Arafat Khan (32) and Joel Craig (15) added forty runs for the next wicket to take Ards and Donaghadee to a competitive total.
They eventually finished on 195 for 8 from their 40 overs.
The pick of the Dundrum bowlers was Ged Donnell who finished with 3 for 41 from his eight-over spell.
Read the full report in the current issue.
