Having suffered a home defeat to Dundrum the previous day Captain Ford had to regroup for this Tillain Cup clash. Eoin Cleere, Coach Lunson and Tyler Balogh dropped out of the side for various reasons with Phillip Keane, Mohammed Tayyib and Mark Gibson-McKenna taking their places. Conditions were overcast and Captain Ford elected to bat on winning the toss. The batting order was :Amit Battan, Phillip Keane, Adam Chester, Mark Wells, Vish Vaidyanathan, Jonathan wardell, David Ford, Sayed Shah, Mohammed Tayyib, Graham Morris, Mark Gibson-McKenna.
Battan and Keane got off to a good start with the Kiwi producing some big hits while the Indian struck three boundaries but also ran the singles well. Keane was first out for 36 to Topping. Chester contributed 5 to a stand of 15 and Wells was upset with Battan after getting run out for 14. Battan was out for 29 and at this stage Phoenix had to go for their shots with Vaidyanathan making 12, Ford 8, Tayyib 11 and Shah undefeated on 14. The target for North Kildare was 142.
Ford opened the bowling with himself and Tayyib. The skipper bowled his full allocation of 5 overs for 29 taking the wicket of Neavyn for 19. Ul Haq hit two sixes in his 21 before being caught by Tayyib off the bowling of Gibson-McKenna. Rahman Ahmed and Ian walshe both made 9 as the reply progressed with Adam Chester a mix of penetrating and expensive as he took 4-40 in his 5 overs. It was also difficult for the fielders to pick up the pink ball in the fading light. In the end Manjit Singh’s adhesive 52 not out swayed the game in the home team’s favour as they got home by 3 wickets with 3 balls to spare.