Clare cricketers’ great start

Clare’s cricketers are finding their feet in their debut season in Munster Division 1 after two victories in successive weeks over Limerick Raiders and Galway.
Against Raiders, officially a home fixture for Clare but played at University of Limerick, Clare batted first and piled on the runs against their local rivals. The star of the show was undoubtedly Farman, who scored a century that included some fine attacking shots. With Sukhpal, John O’Brien and Ranjit Singh contributing to the cause, Clare finished on a huge total of 301 for the loss of nine wickets.

In reply, despite a super opening partnership, Limerick lost vital wickets and never looked likely to trouble the Clare total. Farman again took the individual honours as he took four Raider’s wickets and the away side were finally all out for 250, leaving Clare the victors by 51 runs.

Last Saturday, Clare took on Galway in another Division One encounter. The stakes were high, with both teams looking to secure a top three finish in what is turning out to be a highly competitive league. Clare could also point to Galway dumping them out of the National Cup earlier in the season as motivation. Batting first, Clare were rocked by losing their first four wickets relatively cheaply against a lively Galway bowling attack. The innings was stabilised by several middle-order partnerships thanks to captain Raj Singh, who made 41 and Farman, with 44. The icing on the cake was the unbroken seventh wicket partnership between Ranjit (50 not out) and Farukh (55 not out) that guided Clare to a total of 286 for six wickets after their allotted 50 overs.

The Galway batsmen came out fighting but after Clare’s Sukhpa (Cookie) dismissed their opening three batsmen, including former Clare star Conor Mullen, they were always on the backfoot. Sukhpal finished with four wickets and was ably supported by Gogi, Umair and Farman with a wicket apiece. Despite a battling 75 not out from Dinesh Ali, Galway were finally all out for 240, leaving the Clare side the victors by a comfortable 46 runs.

The next game for Clare is the re-arranged Munster Senior Cup against unbeaten Cork County on Bank Holiday Monday in what promises to be a season-defining encounter for the Banner outfit.