Clare takes first Divison One scalp

Clare’s newly promoted cricket team took the spoils against Midleton XI in Cork on Sunday. It was Clare’s first ever game in the top division of Munster cricket.

After a couple of cancelled matches due to adverse weather conditions, coupled with a frustrating loss to Galway in the National Cup the previous weekend, the Clare team welcomed back a few players after exam leave and were fired up for the first league game of the campaign. Weather conditions on the day were very overcast with a damp outfield which made the coin toss all the more important.

Midleton won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to ask Clare to bat first in such bowling-friendly conditions. Clare lost some early wickets and were struggling to score against a disciplined Midleton attack.

The middle order rescued the Banner outfit however with Tarik (25), Farman (32) and Jeremy Mace (38) providing solid support to top scorer Farukh, who made a sparkling 51 runs including some immaculately struck boundaries. In the end Clare were all out for 231 runs after 42 of their allotted 50 overs.

As weather conditions improved in the afternoon, that total looked to be well within Midleton’s reach, especially when the Cork side built a number of strong early partnerships.

The Clare bowlers kept applying the pressure however and were rewarded with regular wickets from Farukh, Rajwinder and especially Ranjit Singh who deserves a mention for removing both of Midleton’s top scoring batsmen.

The star bowler though was Clare captain Raj Singh who finished with figures of 5 wickets for 40 runs off his 10 overs after a fine display of accurate spin bowling. In the end Midletonwere all out for 186 meaning a victory to Clare by 45 runs.

Clare’s next match is a Junior Cup fixture in Tralee against Kerry on Saturday.