Graham Hume may have lost his Ireland contract but on Sunday, it looked like Cricket Ireland had made a big mistake.

The South African-born paceman almost single-handedly ensured Waringstown started their defence of the NCU Challenge Cup with a comprehensive 10 wickets victory over Lisburn, who had won all six previous 50-over games this season.

Not that this match threatened to reach anywhere near a 50-over contest. Rain was always going to play its part and after Hume had ripped through the Lisburn top order, Steve Stolk and Adam Dennison needed less than eight overs to reach their DLS target of just 95.

Hume took the new ball, after Waringstown won the toss, and with his fourth ball had the dangerous Ross Adair caught at the wicket. Three more wickets followed in overs four, five and six, bowling James Hunter and Nigel Jones and having in-form Neil Whitworth caught on the boundary to his second ball.

There was no way captain Greg Thompson was getting the ball out of Hume’s hand now and although he had to wait until his last over to have Glenn Halliday caught at slip, he followed up three balls later by bowling Jon Hinrichsen to finish with the superb figures of six for 20.

When Hume’s opening partner Tom Mayes replaced Hume at the David Simpson End he too picked up a wicket, with extra bounce taking the edge of Ewan Wilson’s bat and Thompson holding on to another catch at slip. Lisburn were 61 for eight from 21 overs.

Mike McComish, Callum Atkinson and Ben Walsh prolonged the innings to the 39th over, facing 110 balls between them, but they scored only 28 runs, Walsh playing 24 ‘dot’ balls before his only scoring shot.  A wide next ball staggered Lisburn into three figures but next over Ross Allen wrapped up the innings, his second wicket at an economy rate of 1.03 from his six overs!

Light rain delayed the resumption and reduced the Waringstown innings to 42 overs but with more rain threatening, Stolk was always going to be in a hurry. Sure enough, he faced just 32 balls, eight of them clearing the boundary and another three going over on the bounce in his 71 not out, with opposite number and country-mate Hinrichsen bearing the brunt of his brutality, as he conceded 51 in his four overs.

Dennison, content to play the minor role, should have been out on 14 when a straightforward chance was put down at point but it was never going to affect the result.

The game was a rude awakening for Lisburn after their all-conquering start and it is not going to get any easier with Irish Senior Cup favourites Pembroke arriving in the Park for their quarter-final tie next Sunday and the following Saturday they travel to The Lawn for the team’s first League encounter of the season.

It should be noted that Lisburn were without Ben Calitz, ruled out of the game because he had only arrived back from South Africa on Saturday, after sorting out his visa problem, and Cricket Ireland insisted he had to have a ‘travel day’ off. It still would have needed a huge innings to deny Waringstown and Hume on the day, though.

As for the Villagers, they also have a big two weeks coming up because on Saturday they host defending champions Instonians in the only Premier League game which will go ahead – the five abandoned Challenge Cup ties from Sunday will be replayed this Saturday – and if they win that and then beat Lisburn again they will be the team to catch.

On Sunday’s evidence, they will be favourites in both matches.