Laois Cricket Club

The Laois first team match against Leinster on Sunday was rained off after 15 overs.

On Saturday 4 July, Laois seconds advanced to the semi-final of the Middle II Cup with a win over North Kildare in Togher:

"The second’s batted first in their Middle 2 Cup game against North Kildare on Saturday having won the toss.

Mudasir, in his inimitable style, fired his way to 33 within the first 6 overs.Phillip Blackley (17) batted sensibly with Ramazam, who completed his first fifty for the club.He held the middle order together supporting young Auret (33).Rash shots from Jaz and Irfan meant that Tom Cosby (46*) and Iain Woodward (35*) came together with the score on 174 with about 8 overs of the 40 to go.Some big hitting and some quick running allowed the pair to take the score up to 255 for the loss of 7 wickets.

In reply, the intention was to keep the run rate below 6 an over for the first 10 to put pressure on their batsmen.Asif opened with Woodward, with the former bowling the more tidily to finish with 1 for 17 off 7.The key partnership to the innings was that between Auret (2 for 35) and Willie Lalor, who bowled 8 overs straight through taking 2 for 46.Defensive fields meant that North Kildare never really recovered from only scoring 42 for 1 off the first 10 overs.Needing more than 200 from the final 30 was always going to be a daunting task and as Laois kept the rate below 6 an over, the target simply grew out of reach.Irfan picked up 2 for 29, Jaz 1 for 5 from his single over stealing the last wicket to fall from Tom Cosby.Tom was unlucky, inducing a potential slip catch that flew over the head of the diminutive Ramazam at 2 slip.

North Kildare succumbed for 177 giving Laois a deserved 78 run win."