After the drama and excitement of last season’s two epic battles between the Archives and Malahide, this was a match distinguished by three Archive’s debutants.

This was the Archives first home match of the season to be played in Shanganagh. Home matches against Phoenix and the Walnuts had been cancelled due to the work of DLR county council. Unfortunately, the outfield was not in the best shape and there was long grass and holes around the cricket mat. The ground should have been tended to with more care from the council.

However, on an evening fighting a losing battle to feel warm with the sun trying to break through the clouds, the home season kicked off when captain Steve lost the toss and Malahide invited the Archives to bat.

Steve and Gordon (making his debut) opened the batting. Gordon faced the first 4 balls in a relaxed and confident manner, hinting at better innings to follow as he was unlucky to hit the 4^th ball he faced directly to a fielder.

Supreeth joined Steve at the crease and both played at their imperious best. Both men were in with a chance for the MOTM award after their batting heroics. Steve smashed two sixes including six off his last ball before retiring. This writer cannot remember the last time Steve did not reach the score of 20+ and face the obligatory retirement. Supreeth hit one more boundary but one less six than Steve. The top of the order had done their job to lay the foundation for a big score. The view from the boundary was that a score of 140 might be needed to stop a Malahide team that bats all the way down the order.

Debutant Gareth who looked very comfortable at the crease scored a stoic 5 against some accurate bowling by Malahide. Shailesh batted beautifully on his way to 23 not out or in more modern parlance at a strike rate of 192, an IPL scout will surely be at the next game against Chapelizod. Shailesh had put himself into contention for MOTM.

John got out too quickly when his fine shot to the boundary was interrupted by a fielder catching it. Guy tried valiantly to push on the score, with one particularly fine four but the fine Malahide bowling proved too much for both men on this occasion. That brought Stewart to the crease to steady the innings, as he has done many times before in his Archives career. With an innings of fine singles and a score of 6 (strike rate 55) it would seem this inning would not put Stewart in the running for MOTM when compared to the performances of some of his team mates.

With overs running out and wickets falling the innings was beginning to unravel then another one of our debutants, William came to the crease. William smashed 4 boundaries at a strike rate 240 and retired on 24* after 10 balls. This has to one of the most electrifying debuts in Archives history. We had another fine contender for MOTM.

While William had put momentum back into the innings the Archives were presented with another over. After a score check from Malahide, it was discovered that 17 overs had not been played and it was in fact 16. The phantom over could not be accounted on the scorebook. The Archives now had another over to play to add to their score. Alas they could not do it as they ran out of batsmen.

Ian played a quick innings and the final debutant of the day, Tim batted at 11. Tim looked anything but a number 11 and was stranded on 1 not out as the innings ended with the Archives scoring a respectable 130, but with 2 overs not used.

Captain Steve looked relaxed and confident as he led his team onto the field. Ian and William opened the bowling. Ian was as miserly as James Anderson only conceding 5 runs in his spell. Debutant William proved to be a top quality allrounder with a firesome spell that was unlucky to only yield 1 wicket. He was definitely a MOTM contender.

Tim got a chance to prove his worth to the side coming on the first bowling change and he produced a brilliant bowling debut. Almost a miserly as Ian, his final figures were 1 for 6. Gordan also brought into the attack early after a 25+ years of absence from playing cricket put in a battling performance facing some unusual Malahide batting.

Malahide’s number 4, also making his debut, was afforded not just one but two lives as Captain Steve displaying a generosity of cricket spirit that even had the Malahide umpires raising their eyebrows, by allowing number 4 to continue batting having lost his wicket twice. Later on, someone remarked this could have been captaincy genius as number 4 scored 1 run at a strike rate of 0.07.

Next it was the turn of the left handers. Guy bowled a wonderful length to restrict the Malahide batsmen to just 8 runs off his bowling while taking 1 wicket. The other lefty John was a bit wayward and had the dubious honour of finally getting number 4 out.

After some confusing running Malahide ran out one of their own and were beginning to fall behind the run rate. But Malahide bat deep. Their number 7 hit three sixes including the longest six this writer had seen in Shanganagh. During this rampage the luckless Gareth was the recipient. Stewart at the other end was bowling tidily, but perhaps not doing enough to get into the MOTM discussion, despite fine figures of 1 for 8.

Malahide’s ebullient wicket keeper batsman Robbie was next to the crease, but the run rate was rising and Captain Steve had two strong bowlers left to finish the innings with Supreeth and Shailesh. Supreeth bowled with great pace and accuracy and was unlucky not to take a wicket, but definitely in the running for MOTM as was Shailesh who also bowled with great pace and took 1 wicket. In the end both were too powerful for a strong Malahide side that batted deep and the Archives defended their total restricting Malahide to 117 for 9 at the end of 20 overs.

The only thing to be decided once the Pimms was poured was who would Malahide pick as the Archives MOTM. When the Malahide captain announced Stewart as the recipient of the award, a visibly shocked Stewart asked if Malahide had called out the correct name. After a quick consultation the MOTM was re-awarded to Supreeth, though William and Shailesh could just have easily have been named.

The match was played in good spirit and neither side could complain about any of the wides called today. A determinedly dogged Malahide team fought valiantly right to the end, but perhaps the absence of their legendary captain Danny tipped the balance in favour of the Archives this time.

[Written by: John Kenny]