Downpatrick bang on form

Downpatrick bang on form

27 June 2018

DOWNPATRICK made a welcome return to winning ways when they beat Derriaghy at Strangford road on a glorious Saturday afternoon.

Derriaghy captain Craig Lewis won the toss and had no hesitation in deciding to bat first.

Ross Boultwood and Mark Yeates opened the bowling for Downpatrick. and after a loose start, the pair got going and restricted Derriaghy to 29 for 1 in the first 10 overs. 

Tye Pilon and Marty Gartland came on to replace the openers and Pilon made his breakthrough in his third over.

Thomas Magowan then threw the stumps down from the boundary with a superb run-out and next ball Pilon took his second wicket with the score on 59 for 4. 

Wickets continued to tumble and Magowan took three more wickets. Derriaghy crawled to 96 when the last man was dismissed.

It was a fantastic bowling display from the Downpatrick side with Pilon and Magowan the pick of the bowlers.

With 97 runs required for victory, Downpatrick openers Ryan Smyth and Dale Mullan made a solid start to the innings.

Mullan was dismissed for seven which brought Jordan Wade to the crease. 

Wade made the task a lot easier as he found the boundary with regularity.

Smyth provided great support at the other end as the pair continued to chip away at the target set. Wade was eventually dismissed for an extremely entertaining 54 runs off just 30 deliveries faced. 

Smyth hit the winning runs in the 12th over which gave Downpatrick a comfortable victory.

Downpatrick have two league games this weekend. They are away to Lurgan on Saturday and home to Bangor on Sunday, starting at 12pm. A win in both games will see them go top of the league the halfway stage of the season approaches.

With the great weather to continue why not come down and show some support this Sunday?