The departed Dutchman dropped out of the side and so did Alister Stone facilitating the return of Rory Flanagan and Patrick Conliffe. The assembled throng outlasted the elements and the Duckworth-Lewis system was not called into action. The coin favoured Phoenix who chose to bat with Shaukat ostensibly justifying the sobriquet of “useless tosser”.
Captain Dickeson persevered with the opening pair which had held its own against Old Belvedere. The younger Flanagan was soon building a score while the unsung hyphen proved adhesive at the other end. The score had reached 31 when Rush introduced Conway to the attack and this move paid an instant dividend when Flanagan was caught by Gull. Downton soon overtook Plunkett-Cole but was then caught by Sheridan and the elder Flanagan built a solid partnership with Plunkett-Cole before the latter was finally dismissed in the 22nd over. Flanagan batted on to get 30 and the illustrious hyphen made a useful 34 but it was Conor Kelly with 38 from 40 balls who was the star of the innings. The rest of the batsmen did not contribute very much and Rush were set a target of 203 to win. Shaukat was the leading bowler for Rush with 3 wickets for 16 runs.
Phoenix’s defence of 202 got off to a good start when Coach Downton bowled Conway with the second ball of the innings. Despite carrying an injury the coach produced an aggressive and economical opening spell and he also removed Amir Iqbal and Shaukat. With figures of 10-2-18-3 he retired from the fray and Jamie Faulds was the substitute fielder. Gull and Jansen built a partnership until Jansen was bowled by Kelly and the former Phoenix man persisted with Shahid Iqbal until the latter was caught and bowled by Masud with Rush still 54 runs short. Butterly was unable to hang around but Gull got 17 while Mullan got 7 and Masud’s third wicket was timely for Phoenix. However, Phoenix’s fate was sealed when Gull managed to top edge the illustrious hyphen for a vital six and although Flanagan had the tall man caught by Masud Sheridan and Donnelly (the latter without facing) were able to see the visitors through by 2 wickets.
Man of the Match
Scorer’s nominations: C Kelly, A Downton
However, John Doran would probably give the citation to his friend Sadat “Tipu” Gull whose marathon knock of 86 lasted nearly as long as it takes to watch “The Godfather”.
