Ballina Cricket Club to begin league season this weekend
Ballina Cricket Club.
A perfect day for cricket saw the first match of the 2026 season take place at the Ballina Oval in Belleek on Sunday.
A warm-up game before next weekend's opening league match between two teams made up of the club's players saw a closely fought contest, with some fine cricket played by both sides. Runs were on the low side, but some decent bowling and fine catches from both sides made for an entertaining spectacle in the warmth of the April sunshine.
Captained by Manu Devassy and Sai Sravan, Manu's team were sent out to bat first. The pitch was in fine condition, thanks to the mowing exploits of club members in the previous couple of days, and the batting team found runs hard to come by. The top scorer with the bat was Nithin with 17 not out. A wicket taken on his second ball from Pavitter showed intent; the top wicket count went to Vinu with 3 batsmen dispatched. And while the wickets fell steadily, a high number of extras on top of the 47 runs made meant Sravan's team were facing a target of 91 when they took to the field after tea.
Just the second over in, Manu bowled and caught Arif to start the innings with aplomb. However, despite some good bowling resulting in a few wides, it was to be the 9th over before another wicket was taken, a fine effort with a catch from his own delivery from Blany Fernandes. He was to be the stand-out bowler with 3 wickets taken, despite a nasty injury to a finger when attempting another catch of his own ball.
The batting side continued to add runs at a nice pace, playing clever shots that didn't give the fielders much chance of punishing them. By the midway point in overs, the score was 51, and only 2 wickets were gone.
Sravan and Pavitter had each faced 20 balls or so and had a nice partnership of 35. Pavitter had to retire, unfortunately, and then there was great hope for the fielding side when Yash used his spin to great effect to remove Sravan.
The fielding team were emboldened and went on to take 5 more wickets in the next 7 overs. 2 each from Manu and Damian Schwarz put the pressure on the batting team, and it looked like they might run out of batsmen before the total was reached.
'One wicket, five runs' was the cry from the fielding team as they set about trying to seal the victory. But up stepped Moiz, who swung purposefully and cleared the boundary for a 6 on just his second ball, winning the game for Sravan's team, with just that one last wicket to go.
The first league match is on Sunday, May 3rd at 11 am. Come and support Ballina CC.
