Ayr vs Irvine: Rowan Cup 22/05

VALIANT IRVINE LOSE IN CUP SHOWDOWN

Tonight, Irvine travelled to Cambusdoon Sports Club to play Ayr, a National League side, in the Rowan Cup. Irvine put in a spirited performance, but sadly were to get beaten.

Having gone into bat first, Irvine set Ayr a challenge of obtaining 91 runs from 20 Overs. Although this total may not sound much, credit has to be given to the truly magnificent fielding performance displayed by the home side.

Irvine opened their batting with the recently signed Drew Parsons and the Kiwi Mark Hughes. Irvine reached 7 runs before Drew was sent back to the Pavilion in the 2nd Over. In the 3rd Over, we saw a massive 6 from Mark. However, three balls later, Mark was sent packing as well. This then left the veteran Robbie Stewart and the enigmatic Euan Morrison at the crease. After a boundary from Robbie, he was to be then unfortunately bowled by the home sides' Baird.
At this point, Irvine were on 23-3 in the 7th Over, and were looking at trying to push on their score. The inspirational skipper that is Stewart McCallum then came to the crease to try and help with the run total. Sadly after Stewart came to the crease, Euan was then caught for 5 from the bowling of Logan, making it a third wicket for the Ayr bowler, and which in turn, left Irvine looking despairingly at figures of 27-4 of 8 overs. Irvine were really struggling, and did not know where to look for a solution.

Thankfully, cometh the man, cometh the hour, and that man was the gallant Graeme Owens. The wicket-keeper and our Skipper looked at trying to gain some credibility for the team. This they did endeavour to do, and worked solidly on a partnership of 20 runs, before the Skipper was sent packing for 4 runs. Although his own personal score wasn't significant, Stewarts' role in the partnership with Graeme did help Irvine to the total of 47-5 of 12 Overs. With Mike Ingram, Captain Birds' Eye of the 2nd XI, and Graeme at the crease, Irvine could then look at setting Ayr a challenging total. This they did do, before Graeme was caught from the bowling of Mckelene for an impressive total of 25runs, which left Irvine on 62-6 of 15 Overs.

The rampaging bull that is known as Ruchin Filander then came to the crease to try and help Captain Birds' Eye in setting a challenging total. This they did with Mike finishing on 16 not out and Ruchin on 14, which meant Irvine finished on 90-6 of 20 Overs.
Although this may not seem great, the game was still very much in the balance at this point.

Sadly, it was not to be Irvines' day and Ayr did surpass our total. However, this was not without a good bowling and batting performance from our team.
The express-train that is Euan Morrison took one wicket, smashing one of the stumps out of the ground in the process. The magician that is Mark Hughes took the other two wickets, one being that of the Scottish Internationalist, Bruce Patterson.

Overall, there were a lot of plus points to be taken out of this display. If the performance that was shown tonight can be carried over into our league fixtures, then Irvine should be looking at securing their 1st Division status.


BATTING STATISTICS

D.Parsons 3 runs
M.Hughes 13 runs
R.Stewart 6 runs
E.Morrison 5 runs
S.McCallum 4 runs
G.Owens 25 runs
M. Ingram 16 n.o.
R.Filander 14 n.o.

Extras 4 wides

Total 90 runs



See you all at practice on Thursday

Cyril the Squirrel