Muckamore captain Neil Gill praises Luke Allen after half-century helps pave the way for opening league win against Belfast

​On a day when only four senior matches were completed after another weekend of bad weather, the Moylena side made the most of home conditions to post a superb 257/6 with Allen leading the way.

Coming in at number four, he struck 72 and put on a third-wicket partnership worth 80 alongside Vardhan (67) and then shared a match-winning stand of 112 with skipper Gill (59) to put the hosts on top despite the best efforts of Naveed Ahmad (4/35).

Main man Gill was only able to bowl two overs in Muckamore’s defence due to a heel injury and Belfast got off to a flying start with Nicolaas Serdyn (72) and Haider Haider (26) putting on 102 for the first wicket before Ted Britton forced a run out to turn the tide.

Belfast collapsed from 106/0 to 177 all out with Pavan Karthik (5/43) star of the show and Gill was delighted to get underway with a victory as they target a return to the Premier League.

"It was tougher than we would have liked,” he told the club’s media channel.

“Getting 258 was good - that's a great score on a slow deck early in the season.

"Nine times out of 10 that will win you the game but the guys know we didn't bowl well at all.

"We had a good chat after and the seamers know there were too many freebies. Especially early season it's top of off stump and do the basics and the rest will take care of itself.

"Luke has had a tough time off the field and he hasn't hit many balls over the winter so for him to turn up and bat the way he did was brilliant.

"It was maturity - he didn't take any risks. It was the type of day that you couldn't really take any risks and you had to wait on the bad ball and run hard.

"There are loads of positives but also lots to work on as well."

Karthik, who has Premier League experience, dealt crucial blows to the Belfast middle order which never allowed them to claw back any momentum.

"Ted was bowling at his end and I made the decision at drinks that I was going to try Pav and try to get a breakthrough straight away,” added Gill.

"Teddy wasn't too happy but it ended up alright. It was one of those decisions that it could have went for me or against me and thankfully today he came on and got five wickets to win the game for us. Pav is super in the middle overs."

Muckamore are back in action on Monday afternoon when they travel to Donacloney Mill and Gill won’t be letting his squad get complacent despite a strong first showing.

"We started off last year with a convincing win against Bangor where we scored 280 and then went to Dundrum and got beat and were awful,” he said. “The boys’ attitudes have been great."

In the other Section One encounter, Laurelvale beat Ballymena by 36 runs (DLS) at Mullavilly Road.