Craig Young produced an over for the ages in Malahide yesterday, (WEDS) claiming three wickets in four balls to set up a first win for the Dublin Guardians in the European T20 Premier League — beating Belfast Wolves by eight wickets.
After five straight defeats in the Netherlands leg of the tournament it was going to take something special to get the Guardians off the mark, and the big man from Co Tyrone provided it.
A wicket with his first ball of the game was only the prologue to an extraordinary second over where Young had Ireland’s best white-ball batter Paul Stirling held at long on, T20 specialist David Miller caught behind, and then dismissed ‘The Big Show’ himself Glenn Maxwell first ball.
There was no way back from 62-6 for the Wolves and the veteran seamer returned in the penultimate over to claim his five-fer (CORR) as the Belfast franchise were bowled out for 107.
“One of the boundaries was much shorter than the other and that simplified the game in a way,” Young said.
“Some days it comes off for you and sometimes it doesn’t — that’s T20 cricket.”
Young could have claimed the ETPL’s first six-wicket return when one of his deliveries to last man Saurabh Netravalkar kissed the off stump without dislodging a bail, but he was delighted with final figures of 5-21 and pocketed the match ball as a souvenir.
The Guardian batsmen made short work of the chase, winning with an impressive 33 balls to spare after David Willey had clobbered four sixes in an over on his way to a top score of 44.
The Guardians will be back in action on Friday tomorrow (FRI) at Malahide, taking on the Edinburgh Castle Rockers.