Carney pleased with Ross County Cricket Club's performance despite loss to Northern Counties at Castle Leod
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Graeme Carney was happy with Ross County Cricket Club’s performance last week, despite losing to Northern Counties by eight wickets on home turf.
The match was originally supposed to be played at Northern Meeting Park in Inverness, but with the threat of rain around it was switched to Castle Leod’s artificial wicket.
Home advantage was not enough for County to get the win though, as a failure to break Northern Counties’ batting partnerships saw the visitors run out as comfortable winners on paper.
Carney says that was not the full story, though.
“I thought we had perhaps gotten enough with our total,” he explained.
“I was quite pleased with our effort from the bat. We scored quite quickly, especially early on, but we maybe started to slow down towards the end as we started to lose wickets and momentum.
“Obviously in the end we came up slightly short in our performance with the ball – David Dugdale scored an unbeaten century and was backed up by support around him.
“Just looking at the scorecards maybe doesn’t tell the whole picture. Even though they had wickets in the bank, it was quite a challenging run rate as the game went on.
“I thought we actually bowled quite well, despite maybe not getting the rewards that we could have.
“We were always fighting right up until the end, so on that front it wasn’t a bad performance.”
It was a good day for Carney personally, as the County captain scored 105 before retiring.
Coming off the back of two games already this summer where he was out without scoring, it was particularly pleasing for him to cash in and make a big score.
“The ball was coming off the bat nicely, I scored a few boundaries which is always good towards the end of the season,” Carney said.
“I’ve had a few low scores, so it was good to get some runs.
“Even though I’ve had a couple of ducks, I have felt in quite good form and then had my stumps knocked over twice this season without scoring.
“I had a good knock against Nairn, and I felt if I got myself in then perhaps a good score was on the cards.
“There was a couple of loose overs by a few of their bowlers which helped me get my eye in and score a few boundaries, and then after that myself and Duncan Scott had a big partnership.
“Duncan batted really well as well, he scored in the 60s. He kept things tight from some good bowling at his end, and I tried to capitalise at the other end. We worked together in that respect, and it paid off on the day.”
Read the full edition of today's Ross-shire Journal here.
