News

On the last day of August in the shadow of Sligo’s iconic Benbulben, County Sligo CC hosted the highlight of the Connacht Cricket Union’s season, the Connacht Senior Cup final between Co. Galway CC and Ballaghadereen CC.
And a highlight it turned out to be as both teams showed plenty of the drive, determination and daring that not only makes for a great final but is also required to sustain and develop cricket in a province where the toughest opponent can often be the West of Ireland weather.

Ballaghadereen won the toss and asked Galway to bat and it looked a questionable decision as the Tribesmen progressed to 88-2 anchored by Danish Ali (37) and then pushed on to 131-4. In the Roscommon men’s favour was the fact that the run rate was under 4 an over but against that a heavy drizzle was persisting and scoring was not getting any easier.

It became an evenly balanced contest for the remainder of the Galway innings with number 8 batsman Tabish Ali (36) forging a number of useful partnerships with the tail whilst Ballaghadereen kept taking wickets, the last of which fell at the end of the 47th over with the Galway total on 179.

Ballaghadereen’s target of 180 at a rate of 3.6 runs per over soon looked like a very distant and unlikely one as brilliant swing bowling from Iliff and two disastrous run-outs reduced their reply to 34-6 after just 8 overs.

But Farman and Waqaas Ail Raja had other ideas and with Farman providing the big hitting and Waqaas the steady support they steadied the ship and then upped the run-rate but when Farman departed for a well-made 45 there was still 83 required with just 3 wickets left.

Now Ballaghadereen’s number 9 Ahmed joined Waqaas and started to take apart the Galway bowling and the 8th wicket pairingwere homing in on their target when heavy rain forced the players off with the score on 146-7.

Thankfully the rain relented after half an hour, the match resumed and the drama continued.

Ballghadereen’s 146-7 became 158-8 and then 8 balls later 159-9. 21 required to win but it was down to the last pair, Waqaas and Amar.

It was Waqaas who tipped the balance in Ballaghadereen’s favour with a masterful demonstration of how to farm the strike and protect the number 11 bat whilst picking the right ball to score off.

Fittingly it was Waqaas who hit the winning runs, a huge 6 over the midwicket boundary to bring the Ballaghadereen score to 185-9 to take the Senior Cup by just 1 wicket.

In his match summary the man-of-the-match adjudicator, Cricket Ireland’s James Doran, paid tribute to both teams for providing an absolute classic in tough conditions saying, “This final was a wonderful advertisement for the quality of cricket being played in Connacht” and he went on to commend the CCU officers, particularly the tireless Hon. Secretary, Muhammad Asif, and all the Connacht area clubs for, “the resolve and fortitude that they display not only in their playing of the game of cricket but also in fostering its development in the West of Ireland”.

The man-of-the match award was presented to Ballaghadereen’s Waqaas Ali Raja (49no) for his key batting performance in bringing his team’s score from 34-6 to the winning total of 185-9 following which the Connacht Senior Cup was presented to the victorious Ballaghadereen team by Co. Sligo CC’s Sajjad Hussain, deputising for the host club’s Chairman, Paul Mercer.

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