WITH confidence low and form lacking, North Down faced the daunting task of an away tie at Sydney Parade, Dublin against Leinster kingpins Pembroke in the Irish Senior Cup last Saturday.
Batting first, the side got off to another poor start with key batsmen Alistair Shields and Kian Hilton both back in the pavilion after both scoring eight, leaving the board showing 21 for 2 in the sixth over.
Any hopes of a decent first innings score realistically rested on the shoulders of professional Mickey Copeland, who has started the season brightly despite a few lower scores in recent weeks.
Copeland set about a rebuild and alongside Mo Aahil took the score to 63 before Aahil departed for 19. Crucially, wickets continued to fall through the middle overs of the innings with Copeland continuing his progress, albeit in careful fashion as the scoring rate fell.
The homeside’s bowling attack continued to dominate and the wickets of Stevie Saul and Tom Crothers were followed by the key wicket of Copeland for 60 with the score on 150.
With 15 overs left in the innings North Down would have been hopeful of reaching the 200 mark to at least give the bowling attack something to try to defend, yet further wickets tumbled as Peter Davison, Luke Crothers, Josh Corbett and Jaxon Dines departed, leaving North Down 172 all out in 46.3 overs.
In reply, Pembroke dominated from the off and brought up 50 inside six overs as the North Down bowling attack of Davison and Aahil failed to make inroads. Young spinner Josh Corbett, bowling at first change, got the first wicket capturing Tector for 33 caught Shields, yet the hosts’ progress continued on the good batting wicket and fast outfield.
A second wicket finally arrived with the score on 111 as MacDonald was caught Davison bowled Copeland for 30, and a final wicket of opener Garth for 74 went to Corbett who was the pick of the North Down bowlers, finishing with figures of 2 for 38.
In total, North Down used seven bowlers and importantly introduced young Jaxon Dines who continued to impress bowling tightly against a dominant batting attack and going for less than six runs per over in his five-over spell.
Jacob McClure-Dalzell alongside Tom Crothers also got a few overs as the home side romped to a commanding victory and passed the North Down total in only 28 overs with the loss of three wickets.
All together, another hugely disappointing outing for the 1st XI who continue to struggle with both bat and ball. The side, now hampered by the loss of captain and coach Tyron Koen, look a shadow of the team who opened the season with a strong league win at home to Cliftonville Academy in late April and need to address both batting and bowling frailties quickly if it is to be in any way a successful year.
This evening (Thursday), North Down will travel to CSNI for a T20 encounter followed by an hugely important home game on Saturday against Muckamore at The Green. Saturday’s game in reality will be a make or break moment for the side following recent defeats and all are hopeful of a large home crowd to spur them on.
