Harlequins Cricket Match Report

Munster Junior Cup Final

Harlequins 2 beat County Galway by 3 wickets

Played at Farmers Cross, Saturday 7th July 2004

Harlequins win Munster Junior Cup for the first time

On the same day as the Leicester Foxes won the 2004 Twenty20 final in dramatic fashion on the other side of the Irish Sea, it was maybe appropriate that the Munster Junior Cup final should be won in the same fashion.

At around 7:00pm in the gathering gloom at Farmers Cross, Harlequins found themselves needing 25 runs off the final two overs of a rain-shortened 33 over-a-side match against County Galway. The only reason Harlequins were in the match at all, at this stage, was due to some terrifically aggressive shot play by both Richard Gash, who had earlier been bowled for 60 by Turton, and Ben Hale.

At the start of the 31st over Ben was batting with his brother, the Harlequins captain, Liam. Liam faced the first ball of this over and scored a quick single. Ben Hale then heaved the next delivery for a straight six, and the third ball of the over for a four. Two more quick singles brought Ben on strike again, and he dispatched the last ball of the over for another four. From needing 25 off twelve balls, Quins now needed 8 off six. They only needed three of those six, and the winning four was appropriately stuck by Ben Hale, leaving him on 51 not out - and Quins Munster Junior Cup winners for the very first time in their history, by a margin of three wickets.

Des O'Leary, Billy Perrott, Liam hale, Mick O'Colleran, Richie Benson, Richie Gash
Ben Hale, Seamus Gee, Paul guiney, Jim Burfield, David Gash, James Heath

This was an unlikely end to a thrilling match that had started badly for Quins, with the Galway openers of Steve Ellis and Aleem, putting on an impressive 68 off the first 10 overs. Indeed, Aleem would surely have been man of the match had Galway been the winning side - he was only out after a fine catch by Paul Guiney off the bowling of Richard Benson, having scored 92.

The next highest score by a Galway batsman was that of 26 not out by the youngster Griffin - a very commendable knock at the tail end of the Galway innings. However, all the Galway batsmen scored runs and the only Quins bowlers to apply any sort of pressure were Michael O'Colleran and Richard Benson. Indeed O'Colleran finished with excellent figures of 7 overs, 5 wickets for 21 runs. Even so, Galway finished their allotted 33 overs with a highly competitive score of 201 from their allotted 33 overs.

Quins Captain, Liam Hale, receives the cup!

The Harlequins reply got off to a very poor start with three wickets falling in the first 10 overs with only 28 runs being scored - all three wickets were run outs - the pressure of a run rate of over a-run-a-ball telling from the start. Richard Gash held his nerve, and together with Michael O'Colleran, saw off some excellent overs from the Galway opening bowlers, Shultz and Gregory.

O'Colleran was eventually run out for 23, which brought Paul Guiney to the crease. Guiney and Gash brought the Quins score past the 100 mark, but the overs were fast running out. Indeed, with 10 overs to go the run rate was up to 8.4 an over, and things were looking bleak for Quins.

Guiney was then caught and bowled by Griffin. This brought the man of the match, Ben Hale to the crease. The Quins scoring began to accelerate, but Richard Gash was then clean bowled as Turton took his second wicket. Billy Perrott scored only six before becoming the fifth Harlequins batsman to be run out as Quins frantically looked for at least a-run-a-ball. This brought Liam Hale into bat to partner his brother, with some 45 runs still required off the final four overs.

The next two overs saw some frantic singes being run, a few fours and a six being hit by Ben Hale and several wides being bowled by the now visibly nervous Galway bowlers. All of which led to 25 being required off the final two overs.

Queue Ben Hale to lead the way to a Quins victory.