Bready batsman David Rankin has long threatened to deliver the kind of innings that almost single-handedly led his team into the North West Senior Cup final.

Until this season the 23-year-old has perhaps shown all-too fleeting glimpses of a precocious talent, but judging by the way he flailed the Strabane attack on his way to a career best 155 at Strabane Park on Saturday, he has taken his game onto a higher level.

There were mutterings in the Bready camp about why Rankin had been overlooked for a Cricket Ireland select side that took part in Lisburn’s 175th anniversary celebrations on Friday, and on this evidence they have the strongest of cases.

True the Strabane bowling was at times far below the standard you would expect to see in a cup semi-final, and indeed their catching at times bordered on the comical, but there was no denying Rankin’s magnificence.

As a teenager he made 154 as he and Chris Dougherty shared an opening partnership of 317 against Bonds Glen in this very competition in 2007, but the 228-run second wicket stand on Saturday with Stephen Clarke was so much more significant.

Strabane, who were without strike bowler Phil Eaglestone, bowled well with the new ball, but things went downhill fast for the home side after first Clarke was missed badly at mid-off when he was just 16 and then Ciaran Patton failed to hold on to a difficult return chance off Rankin before he had reached 30.

The medium-pacer damaged a finger and was unable to continue, and an already stretched Strabane bowling attack was down to the bare bones.

Rankin was initially circumspect against the accuracy of Martin Deans and Ryan Patton but before long he was striking with familiar power straight down the ground and he effectively hit the leg-spinner Mark Gillespie out of the attack, as he pulled with aplomb and unleashed a sequence of superbly-executed slog sweeps.

He reached three figures in the 31st over and all the while Strabane were gradually disintegrating. Clarke, who struck eight fours and one six in a fine 79, was finally held on the mid-wicket boundary in the 40th over.

At 251 for two with ten overs remaining, Bready had designs on the dizzy heights of 350, but when Rankin was bowled after striking 12 fours and eight sixes, it sparked a collapse that saw five wickets fall for just 11 runs.

Jonathan Beukes, the Strabane captain, was the beneficiary with six wickets for just 34 runs.. A total of 297 for nine was by no means out of Strabane’s reach. Last year’s beaten finalists chased down a similar target against Fox Lodge earlier this month and with Niall McDonnell and Kevin Martin out of the traps in familiar fashion, Bready might just have been fearing the worst.

But the pendulum swiftly swung in their favour in the fifth over as Brian Scanlon swooped from mid-wicket and capitalised on a fatal hesitation between the openers to run out McDonnell for 16. Mark Gillespie briefly gave Strabane hope by striking eight fours and a six in a rapid half-century, but there was an air of desperation about their batting, as summed up when his brother Peter was bowled attempting to pull a delivery from Ian Young (4-16).

The former Ireland batsman has now failed to reach 20 in his last six innings. Young spinner Mark Fleming underlined his talent with three wickets, including the prize scalp of Beukes, caught brilliantly by his opposite number Agha Sabir diving full length to his right.

The formalities were soon complete on a 114-run win and Bready will take their place in the two-day showpiece for the second time in three years.

Universally liked and respected for their relentless cultivating of young talent, Trevor Hamilton’s team will dearly want to go one step further than the 2009 defeat by Donemana.