DUNDRUM firsts secured a fantastic away victory over Belfast Superkings at Mallusk on Saturday.
Due to unforeseen circumstances the team was forced to play on an artificial wicket. This, combined with the long outfield, meant Dundrum captain Gavin McNerlin elected to bowl first to put the home side under early pressure.
Dundrum opened the bowling with young guns James Wright and Andrew Campbell. Belfast opened the batting with Shashanka Rama and Karthik Krishnamoorthy.
Belfast got off to a steady start, looking to see off the Dundrum openers on a pitch that was not providing much support for the bowlers.
Dundrum got the breakthrough after brilliant work by Daniel Murray to run out Rama (three) to leave Belfast 17 for one from five overs.
This opened the gates for Dundrum as they began to pick up wickets at regular intervals. Campbell had new batsman Praveen Punithan (zero) trapped LBW before Stian Swanepoel had Krishnamoorthy (12) brilliantly caught in the slip cordon by Stuart Campbell.
Dundrum managed to reduce Belfast to 35 for six from 15 overs in a great opening period for the visitors.
Belfast began to dig in, and were patient in hopes Dundrum would let up on the pressure and allow scoring to begin easier.
However, the Dundrum kept to their plans to continue to make scoring difficult. Swanepoel (2-12), Stuart Campbell (2-7), Richie Shilliday (2-12), Scott Symington (1-14) and Daniel Murray (1-11) all picked up wickets in the middle overs to make batting difficult for the Belfast batters.
In the end, Belfast never got going in their innings and were eventually bowled out for 93 from 35 overs.
The pick of the Dundrum bowlers was Stuart Campbell, who finished with figures of two for seven from his five over spell.
Dundrum began the second innings knowing they needed to bat well on a difficult, artificial pitch and slow running outfield.
Dundrum opened the batting with Gavin McNerlin and Rhodri Phillips while Belfast opened the bowling with Faisal Manzoor and Abdul Zainul Aabdeen.
Dundrum got off to a bad start when Phillips (three) was dismissed in the opening over off the bowling of Manzoor.
This brought Stuart Campbell to the crease looking to rebuild for Dundrum. Campbell and McNerlin managed to add 40 for the next wicket before Campbell (19) was then dismissed off the bowling of Balaji Rajasekaran.
This left Dundrum 43 for two from 12 overs. Stian Swanepoel joined McNerlin at the crease looking to finish the chase off for Dundrum.
Swanepoel went on the attack, hoping to get Dundrum to the target as quickly as possible. In the end, Dundrum reached the target in the 19th over with 21 overs still to bowl.
McNerlin finished for 34 not out and Swanepoel finished on 25 not out.
A routine eight-wicket victory for Dundrum, who got their season back on track after back to back defeats the previous weekend.