Open Division 10 stats
Leading all time run scorer (2011-2019) - Sandeep Shahdeo (Cabinteely/DLR County) - 1099 runs @ 47.78
Most runs in a Division 10 season - Anthony Coates (Ringcommons) - 600 runs (2013)
Highest score - Peter Auret - 184 - Slieve Bloom 1 vs Terenure 3 - Terenure - 16 May 2015
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2019) - Nicholas Jagoe (Railway Union) - 58 wkts @ 13.26
Most wickets in a Division 10 season - Anthony Coates (Ringcommons) - 29 wkts (2013)
Best bowling - Sandeep Sood - 9-15 - Civil Service 3 vs Malahide 5 - Civil Service - 3 Jul 2011
Most matches - Paul Byrne (Railway Union) (2013-19) - 47
Highest team score - 355-3 - YMCA 4 vs North Kildare 3 - Claremont Road - 27 Aug 2011
Lowest team score - 38 all out - Pembroke 5 vs Railway Union 5 - Sydney Parade 1 - 4 Aug 2013
Team of the Year
Batsmen: Ghanshyam Godara (DLR County) (Div 10 (2018)), Tony David Kurian (DLR County), Sandeep Shahdeo (DLR County) (Div 10 (2017, 2018)), Vikas Gulati (Malahide) (Div 11 (2015)), Brian Gilmore (Malahide) (Div 4 (2011), Div 5 (2012, 2013), Div 9 (2016, 2017))
Wicketkeeper: Karthikeyan Jawahar (Leinster)
Bowlers: Ravi Shokeen (Merrion) (Div 11 (2018)), Naveen George (DLR County), Vijay Shankar Kumar (DLR County), Yaser Sheriff (Railway Union), Muhammad Saleem (Clontarf)
Review
In Open Division 10, 48 games were played, four walkovers were given and four other games were not played for various reasons (including rain)
Runs per wicket for all teams - 19.61 Runs per over for all teams - 4.72 - Division Competitiveness 71%
DLR County 3 - Champions - (Pos in league - 72 (2018 - 76)) - Batting Rating 144 - Bowling Rating 162 - RpO for 5.72 - RpO against 3.69 - Youth %age (by appearances) 0% - Average age of team 32.9
A stroll in the park for DLR County 3, who had the Division 10 title wrapped up by mid August, and then went on to win their last three games by large margins to complete the season unbeaten. The early season possibly didn't hint at the dominance to come with narrow (ish) victories over Clontarf, Railway Union, Malahide and Longford. From June onwards, no one got close to them - the five wicket win over Dundalk was their worst performance batting second, the 60 run win over Clontarf their worst performance batting first. The development of any club that is formed as a merger is fascinating, and the way DLR County continues to move up the league ladder after the merger of Cabinteely and Dundrum is no exception. DLR County 3 remains a "Cabinteely" team, although that influence is decreasing. Of the eight "stars" in the team, three played for Cabinteely, one for Railway Union and four had their first season in the province in 2019. And the result of all that is the team playing approximately one division higher than when Cabinteely stopped as a separate entity in 2017. Nearly half of our Division 10 Team of the Year comes from the Shanganagh Park club, showing their dominance of the division. Ghanshyam Godara was the leading allrounder on the team with 244 runs at 81.33 and 10 wickets at 18.8, Tony David Kurian scored 247 at 61.75 and Sandeep Shahdeo was named on the Division 10 Team of the Year for the third year in a row with 240 runs at 60. Two bowlers made are selection - Naveen George with 15 wickets at 9.73 and Vijay Shankar Kumar with 14 at 10.29. The seasonal summary is completed with Nikhil Katare who 236 at 33.71, Karthickeyan Ravichandran who took 13 at 12.08 in his debut season and Swapn Joshi with 14 wickets at 14.21. The team finish as the 12th best 3rd team in the province - behind North County and ahead of Balbriggan.
Leinster 4 - 2nd - (Pos in league - 73 (2018 - 69)) - Batting Rating 114 - Bowling Rating 93 - RpO for 5.00 - RpO against 5.00 - Youth %age (by appearances) 23.2% - Average age of team 27.9
Another of those glass half empty/full kind of seasons for Leinster. It was a new low of 73rd for the team, but that was mainly due to last year's relegation, rather than any inadequacy this year. They stayed as the fifth best 4th team in the province for the fourth season in a row. And they bucked something of a trend by coming second in the league, with a healthy smattering of youth players being the youngest team in the division by average age. And the other important point is that Leinster 4 were simply an enormous squad, with 41 players turning out for the team at some point, and only six players played more than six games. That had a direct implication on the individual run scoring and wicket taking though, and only one player made the Team of the Year - wicketkeeper Karthikeyan Jawahar who played in all completed 13 matches, taking 15 dismissals as well as being the leading run scorer with 166 runs at 18.44. In the absence of run scoring, we can have a look at youth achievements instead - 17 year old Muhammad Agmad scored 88 against Clontarf against Railway Union. The bowling was led by Devan Keenan, another 14 year old, who was leading wicket taker with 13 wickets at 23.28. Nitin Rajwar provided back up with 11 at 17.09. Other youth exploits with the ball were 18 year old Jack Barry's 5-22 against Longford and 14 year old Muhammad Sabir's 3-46 against Clontarf.
Malahide 4 - 3rd - (Pos in league - 74 (2018 - 70)) - Batting Rating 144 - Bowling Rating 90 - RpO for 4.89 - RpO against 4.62 - Youth %age (by appearances) 29.9% - Average age of team 30.1
Malahide 4's season has a nice look about it. Built around five successive wins in July and August, in the end Malahide weer only one win away from the second promotion spot, but losses to Clontarf and Railway Union in the last two games meant it wasn't to be. There was also plenty to like on an individual front, with a mix of young and old. There haven't been too many Malahide reviews over the last few years that haven't included a glowing reference to Brian Gilmore, and this one is no different. He joins an exclusive club of players with six selections on various Teams of the Year, alongside Harry Archer who won six for The Hills and Nurul Boda who has six for Castleknock. Gilmore scored 481 runs at 48.10 with 103 against Clontarf and scored over 150 more runs than anyone else in Division 10. Shamil Koottembeth is another player who could be described as being in the second half of his career, and he was the second highest run scorer in the league with 333 runs at 33.0. But the real successes of the team are one again around youth players. 16 year old Eoghan Keohane dominated the Malahide bowling with 21 wickets at 14.38 - like Gilmore, he was the leading wicket taker in the league. This is the joint highest number of wickets for Malahide 4 in a season (alongside Inderjit Singh's 21 in 2014), and also the first youth player to take 20 league wickets in a season for a team for Malahide, since our records began in 2011. 18 year old Daniel Read took 14 wickets at 24.71 and Rajan Chandi took 10 wickets at 20.20. It wasn't just the bowling where Malahide's youth structures are producing talent as 16 year old Adam Doyle scored 312 runs at 28.36. The batting role of honour is completed by Vikas Gulati's 248 runs at 49.6 (including the division's highest score this season - 119* against Merrion) and Martin Russell's 276 runs at 39.43. We're underplaying Gulati's performance a bit, he made his second Team of the Year after being named on the 2015 Division 11 Team.
Railway Union 4 - 4th - (Pos in league - 75 (2018 - 107)) - Batting Rating 102 - Bowling Rating 104 - RpO for 4.87 - RpO against 4.72 - Youth %age (by appearances) 11.0% - Average age of team 30.1
Railway's re-addition of a 5th team in 2019, makes a thorough analysis of their 4th team a little difficult. The finished 32 places higher than it did in 2018, but a better guide is that they finished two places lower than in 2016, but seven places higher than in 2012. That makes Railway one of four clubs (the others being Merrion, Clontarf and Phoenix) whose 4ths are playing at a higher level in 2019 than they were in 2012. In addition to that, five clubs (Adamstown, DLR County, North Kildare, Civil Service and Balbriggan) have 4th teams now that they didn't have in 2012. So by that measure, Railway are part of a small group, who have a 4th team in better shape now than it was eight seasons ago. Four losses within 16 days in August was the difference between the eventual mid table position and something higher, but on the outside it looks as if Railway would be reasonably happy with their season. Yaser Sheriff made the Team of the Year in his second season of the club with 14 wickets at 10.79, but when running your eyes over the Railway stats, you are diverted by Ciaran Kenny's performances. He only batted six times, but if you let him get past five runs, you were in trouble, with his six knocks being 0,62*,55,5,55,61 for 238 runs at 47.6. The leading run scorer was Ajay Kumar Yadav who scored 304 runs at 33.78 in his first season in Leinster. Abhilash Rathi took 15 wickets at 22.13 and Hadley Southall took 10 wickets at 13.10. Southall has moved to second place in the list of Railway Union wicket takers since 2011, with 188 at 17.09. Leading wicket taker is Nicholas Jagoe with 217 at 14.43.
Clontarf 5 - 5th - (Pos in league - 76 (2018 - 82)) - Batting Rating 94 - Bowling Rating 123 - RpO for 4.61 - RpO against 4.35 - Youth %age (by appearances) 10.5% - Average age of team 32.4
The intricacies of analysing cricket at this level is highlighted by Clontarf 5. On the surface it may look like a less than successful season, finishing in 5th place with a team that bowled well but didn't bat as well as they could have done. But dig a little deeper, and it was a wildly successful season. Never before have the fifth string of Clontarf Cricket Club finished so high in the league, and they cemented themselves as the second best 5th team in the province (after Merrion). And by that measure, having a "quiet" season is pretty good! We ranked the Clontarf bowling attack as the second best in the division, and five of them stood out, pretty much the single reason as to why the team had their best season. Muhammad Saleem made the Team of the Year with 14 wickets at 11, but the leading wicket taker was Abhinav Bargur with 19 wickets at 11.47. THe other three in the quintet were Shafqat Ayub with 15 at 15.80, Aamir Khan (15 at 16.07) and 14 year old Luke Thomson with 10 wickets at 13.90. A bit more oomph in the batting may have propelled the team into the promotion spots, but as it was they were bowled out eight times, six of which were for 152 or less. Muhammad Rizwan Ullah was the leading run scorer with 210 runs at 23.33 and Ali Shah scored 207 at 25.88.
Merrion 6 - 6th - (Pos in league - 77 (2018 - 72)) - Batting Rating 78 - Bowling Rating 92 - RpO for 4.12 - RpO against 5.24 - Youth %age (by appearances) 25.0% - Average age of team 29.3
In an era of Leinster cricket whereby lower teams in big clubs are sliding down the leagues, Merrion 6 improved their league position for the fourth year in a row, and they remain 33 places above the next best 6th team, Leinster. Ravi Shokeen was the team's leading player, with a brilliant 19 wickets at 9.68 (even though he only played in seven matches). Since making his debut in 2017, Shokeen has taking 79 wickets at 10.47 for Merrion 6, but yet has only bowled 16 overs for higher Merrion teams. Of those who have bowled at least 250 overs since 2017, only Wexford Wanderers' Nithin Padmaprabhu has a better average than Shokeen. Venkat Puli was the only other player to get past 10 wickets with 15 at 21.73, but with a forty player squad there were only five who played more than six games. Vikram Sharma was the leading run scorer with 187 runs at 23.38 in a batting line up that struggled (they were bowled out for less than 100 three times)
Dundalk 1 - 7th - (Pos in league - 78 (2018 - 77)) - Batting Rating 73 - Bowling Rating 64 - RpO for 4.31 - RpO against 5.80 - Youth %age (by appearances) 18.4% - Average age of team 30.9
A tough year for Dundalk who put all their resources into their new home in Hiney Park in the shadow of Oriel Park. Only nine matches were played, with Dundalk winning two. Their league position has been so consistent over the years, never moving from between 65th ad 72nd between 2012 and 2018, but this year saw a a drop to 78th, which is their lowest since 2011. A developing youth set up offers hope for improvement, with only Malahide, Leinster and Merrion having more youth players. On the field though, it was all about Muhammad Zahid, who returned from a spell in Balbriggan to dominate with bat and ball. He scored 330 runs at 41.25 and took 13 wickets at 15.54, narrowly missing out on the Team of the Year. His 113 against Merrion was only the second ton scored by Dundalk in Cricket Leinster competitions (after Michael Hughes' 121 in 2015), and was the first hundred scored on the new ground (Railway's Ajay Kumar Yadav scored the second hundred, 118, the following day).
Longford 2 - 8th - (Pos in league - 79 (2018 - 71)) - Batting Rating 65 - Bowling Rating 84 - RpO for 4.02 - RpO against 4.72 - Youth %age (by appearances) 11.1% - Average age of team 27.9
A home record of 0-5 and an away record of 1-4 didn't make for a fun season, with that one win being the undoubted peak. In that match Abdullah Saqib scored 61 to set Clontarf 203 to win, before five bowlers took wickets to leave Clontarf four runs short. That was as successful as it got though. Muhammad Atiq Raza led the run scoring with 195 at 21.67, and Adel Aslam was the only player who got to 10 wickets with 10 at 25.5
The full Division 10 batting averages can be found here, whilst the bowling averages are here