CRICKET: Cliftonville make it five wins on the spin

Cooke won the toss and decided to bat but were soon finding scoring difficult against the accurate bowling of Cliftonville’s seam attack, led by Matt McCord, whose 10 overs cost only 20 runs, whilst picking up a wicket.

The back-up bowling was also tight and resulted in Cooke being bowled out in 46 overs for a total of just 115 runs.

The best bowling figures of four wickets for 15 runs came from Shankur with his medium pace variation.

When Cliftonville batted they lost Ross McKnight cheaply to Cooke’s veteran bowler Billy Dale, but Neil Cahill was already going well with watchful play and occasional big hits that cleared the boundary for six.

He was joined by Adam Kelso who also played positively. Between them they put together a stand of 90 to leave Cliftonville comfortable winners by nine wickets; Cahill finishing on 79 not-out.

The win leaves Cliftonville tied at the top with Holywood. The rainy weather unfortunately washed out Sunday’s league match at Cregagh.