Another defeat for Lisburn as they lose by seven wickets

They could only manage a paltry 74 in their innings and were beaten embarrassingly by 7 wickets. The good news is that even with this loss, it will be Ballymena who will be relegated as they were beaten by Carrick and so Lisburn survive for another season in the top flight. On a bright and fresh day at The Lawn, Lisburn captain won the toss and decided to bat on the usually good North Down wicket. This proved to be non- productive as both Simpson brothers were dismissed with the score on 22. Both Richard and Davey were caught of the bowling of Moreland and Khan respectively. Robert Rankin was proving to be the only Lisburn batsman to hold up against the North Down attack and with some fine shots he added 30 with Adam Berry to take the score to 52 before Berry was bowled by Mulder for defiant 6 in the 20th over. James Magowan, again available, did not last long, adding just 18 with Rankin before being caught off the bowling on Malan in the 25th over as Lisburn struggled to 70. The only mainstay of the Lisburn innings, Robert Rankin was progressing well before he too succumbed to Malan; this time he was caught and bowled for 37 scored off 54 balls. With the Lisburn tally on 73, Mark Berry was quickly dismissed for 0 and what happened next could only be described as pitiful. Four wickets fell in the 30th over, each one lbw to Mulder who completed a hat trick with the wickets of Richard McConkey, Carl Williams and Callum Atkinson . The same over saw the end of the Lisburn innings when Ian Glass was also lbw to Mulder leaving Glen Halliday standing at the other end not out on 3 having watched five of his team mates dismissed for the addition of no runs. Lisburn had totally collapsed to 74 all out in the 31st over with no less than five batsmen registering a ‘duck’ which must be some sort of a unwanted record and leaving North Down with the easiest task of knocking off the 75 runs required victory. Mulder had recorded the figures of 5 for 15 off 7 overs including the rare event of a ‘hat trick’. Malan returned the bowling analysis of 3 for 12 as Lisburn capitulated to their lowest total for some time. Chasing the low tally of 75 to win ,North Down wasted no time in knocking off he runs; they scored 28 off the opening 4 overs before Graham was lbw to James Magowan and on the same score Ewing was caught by Robert Rankin off the same bowler. That was the last of the Lisburn resistance as Sutherland and Shields added 22 for the 3rd wicket taking the score to 51 before Sutherland was clean bowled by Richard McConkey for 12 leaving Shields and Eakin to take their team to the winning post without further incident. They reached 76 in the 10th over and completed a massive victory which could keep them in touch with Waringstown who still look favourites to lift the Premier League title. Lisburn can now reflect on their performance during the past season which so far has produced just three league wins. Victories over fellow strugglers, Carrick and Ballymena plus the freak win at Stormont when they bowled CSNI out for 49 were the high points while basically a shortage of runs was their downfall leading to some large defeat. They now must begin to formulate plans for next season if they are to avoid the same relegation problems which dogged them this season.