2019 Open Division 14 review - Finglas 1 win their first ever title

Open Division 14 stats

Leading all time run scorer (2015-2019) - Adam Gilbride (Clontarf) - 1034 runs @ 24.05
Most runs in a Division 14 season - Colm Reilly (Balbriggan) - 510 runs (2018)
Highest score - Salman Shahid - 172* - Laois 3 vs Wexford Wanderers 2 - Wexford RFC - 9 Sept 2018
Leading all time wicket taker (2015-2019) - Tomas Mount (Mullingar) - 64 wkts @ 11.09
Most wickets in a Division 14 season - Tomas Mount (Mullingar) - 28 wkts (2013)
Best bowling - Peter Crosse - 8-9 - Wicklow County 3 vs Mullingar 3 - Aravon School - 3 Sept 2012
Most matches - Adam Gilbride (Clontarf) - 59 (2011-2018)

Team of the Year

Review
In Open Division 14, 46 games were played and three other games were not played for various reasons (including rain)
Runs per wicket for all teams - 18.28 Runs per over for all teams - 4.55 - Division Competitiveness 67%

Finglas 1 - Champions - (Pos in league - 104 (2018 - 114)) - Batting Rating 147 - Bowling Rating 137 - RpO for 5.69 - RpO against 3.95 - Youth %age (by appearances) 0% - Average age of team 36.1

In their second season in league cricket, Finglas 1 won their first league title, winning Division 14 without losing a match. There were two close matches, a 2 wicket win over Railway Union and a 5 run win over Tyrrelstown, but apart from that it was a dominant display. Slightly oddly, despite such a good season, we didn't have them ranked as the best team in the division, (more about that below) but that shouldn't detract from a well organised season. This was another victory for experience over youth, and despite Finglas's well established youth set up, no youth players managed to break into the first team. There is a theme in the lower divisions of league cricket that the dual aims of winning a league and promoting youth players are incompatable, and it may be something for the Open Competitions Committee to look at for 2020. That's not Finglas's problem, and some great individual performances propelled four players on to the Team of the Year. Jayadev Divakar moved to Finglas after five seasons with DLR County and Dundrum, but there wasn't much from those five years that would have given you a clue as to the way his 2019 season would go. His previous best season was in 2018 with 200 runs at 13.33, but that was exclusively at a higher level, with even the lowest level DLR County played at in 2018 being Division 10. Divakar found Division 14 much more to his liking, with 385 runs at 64.17 including consecutive hundreds in July/August against Wicklow County and Leinster. He was joined on the TotY by fellow batsman Dvinder Lance who scored a solid 291 runs at 29.1, batting in all but one of the team's matches. Jinson John finished one wicket short of Conor Mount's record of most wickets in a Division 14 season, but 27 at 7 was a mightily impressive return. He didn't take five wickets in an innings at all, but took at least three wickets on seven occasions. And as if that wasn't enough, he was also the team's leading run scorer with 391 runs at 55.86. A player to watch in 2020! The final Finglas Team of the Year qualifier shows a slight problem with our system - how many matches should a player play before they are considered to have played a part in a league team? We have always gone for five matches, and that is exactly what Jitendra Chavan played in, playing in May and August and taking 10 wicket at 9.5. Yashraj Mate was the fourth player to get to 200 league runs (226 at 28.25), and plenty of bowlers also contributed, with Deepu Jose (18 at 15), Syam Mohan (11 at 10.27) and Bijoy Varghese (11 at 9.91) all having fine seasons. The team also broke Merrion 7's 2013 record for the highest total, when they hit 374-4 against Leinster in August.

Tyrrelstown 2 - 2nd - (Pos in league - 105 (2018 - 108)) - Batting Rating 106 - Bowling Rating 115 - RpO for 4.49 - RpO against 4.07 - Youth %age (by appearances) 0% - Average age of team 33.4

By the time Tyrrelstown 2 lost to Finglas for the second time in mid July, there was little hope of winning the league, but this was still an impressive display by the team, who improved on their 2018 finishing place by three places. The one other loss was to third place Adamstown 5, but apart from that it was a strong season, with the 38 run win over Adamstown 5 probably being the highlight. Avinash Gundagani was the one player around whom the team was built around. His 300 runs earned him the team's sole spot on the Team of the Year, in a season when he confirmed himself as the highest run scorer in Tyrrelstown's short history. He is one of two players (the other being Rajkumar Koka) to have passed 1000 runs for the club, totalling 1346 runs at 26.92. No other batsmen passed 200 runs, but next was the leader of the bowling attack, who in addition to taking 21 wickets at 13.81, scored 186 runs at 23.25. In his second season in Leinster , Madhusudhan Kotankari led a strong bowling unit, with plenty of support. Shreenath Iliger took 15 wickets at 11.6, Jibu Krishna 11 at 14.18 and Abhay Choudhary 10 at 15.10.

Adamstown 5 - 3rd - (Pos in league - 106 (2018 - 116)) - Batting Rating 104 - Bowling Rating 79 - RpO for 4.96 - RpO against 4.80 - Youth %age (by appearances) 12.1% - Average age of team 34.4

Adamstown 5 remain the 7th best fifth team in the province, but improved their league position for the fourth season in a row. 106th is a ten place improvement on 2018, and if they could put together a stronger bowling attack in 2020, there is plenty more improvement to come. Ashok Cutihna makes the Team of the Year as wicketkeeper, with six catches, but he was the only member of the illustrious team, mainly due to a squad of 39 players, only two of whom played in ten of the twelve games. Oddly there were plenty of runs (they passed 225 in an innings three times), but no single batsman scored more than Sanjeev Kumar's 184 runs at 20.44. Similarly ,there were only four 50s, with a special mention to 17 year old Damanvir Singh Oberoi who scored 67 in his one innings for the team. But despite that apparent weakness in the batting, opposition sides took a fancy to Adamstown's bowling, with Dublin University 3 scoring 316-4, and all the other teams in the division scoring at least 160. Rajendra Prabhu took 15 wickets at 11.33 and Varun Sharma took 12 at 22.75, but only Railway Union went for more runs per over than Adamstown's 4.8.

Terenure 3 - 4th - (Pos in league - 107 (2018 - 103)) - Batting Rating 85 - Bowling Rating 98 - RpO for 3.85 - RpO against 4.44 - Youth %age (by appearances) 12.9% - Average age of team 31.7

Another slight drop in league position for Terenure 3, but they remain the 17th best 3rd team. On August 2nd they were 5-3, but a run of four losses saw them slip away to a final 6-7 record. In terms of youth appearances, Terenure came out third highest in the league, but it was the more experienced players who performed well. David Lusby was the leading wicket taker (14 at 13.21) as well as being only one of two players to pass 100 runs in the entire season. The other batsman was Con Hewitt with 204 at 20.4, and the other bowler was John Murray with 10 at 13.3. That isn't the most exciting review in the world, and sometimes teams just have a season that doesn't set the pulses racing! Classically mid table, there were three close games, with the two Wicklow County matches were classics - the very first match of the season resulting in a one wicket win for Terenure, with Wicklow getting an 8 run winning revenge in the return match.

Wicklow County 2 - 5th - (Pos in league - 108 (2018 - 104)) - Batting Rating 89 - Bowling Rating 106 - RpO for 4.15 - RpO against 4.63 - Youth %age (by appearances) 2.8% - Average age of team 35.8

If it was exciting finishes you were after you could have spent the summer in worse ways than watching Wicklow County 2's home matches, and spending a summer in Bray. Wicklow won only two of their six home games, by margins of 4 wickets and 1 run. But how much better the season could have been if they had converted any of those four home losses - the margins being 23 runs, 1 wicket, 27 runs and 14 runs. An extra 17 points would have propelled Wicklow County to 3rd place, which was only two places worse than in 2018. As it was they have slipped t 108th, their lowest finishing position since 2015 (or their 4th highest since 2012 depending on your viewpoint). Thejas Sreedharan made our Team of the Year, two years after he last got the same honour. The allrounder shone with the bat with 302 runs at 25.17 but was distinctly useful with ball as well with 16 wickets at 8.06. The batting struggled, and could have done with another player passing 200 runs. As it was, the next was Jithin John's 174 runs at 19.33. Leading wicket taker was Sashi Kanth, who took 20 wickets at 16.05 in his second season in Leinster cricket. The strength of the bowling attack is emphasised by three more players being worth of special mention - Mohamed Thaju Rahman Mullan who took 15 at 13.27, Matthew Sisley who took 11 at 18.73 and Shawaiz Chaudhary with 11 wickets at 6.36, but incredibly only played three matches. On September 7th, Chaudhary took 7-34 against Leinster (who he played for between 2014 and 2015). It was the fourth best bowling ever in Division 14, but remarkably only the 3rd best for Wicklow County! Abul Shapon took 7-14 in 2014, and Peter Crosse took 8-9 in 2012

Dublin University 3 - 6th - (Pos in league - 109 (2018 - 102)) - Batting Rating 176 - Bowling Rating 133 - RpO for 5.86 - RpO against 4.00 - Youth %age (by appearances) 0% - Average age of team 24.4

And now to the real story of Division 14 in 2019. Dublin University were the team that dominated the division ,with the best batting team by far, and a bowling attack that we only rate slightly behind that of Finglas. But whilst their displays on the field were like sticks of dynamite, off field administration looks more like sticks of celery. 25 points were deducted for the playing of unregistered players, and the result of the match against Terenure was reversed. Despite the big wins (their winning margins were 159 runs, 127 runs, 233 runs and 9 wickets), there were fair and square losses to Finglas and Tyrrelstown, so that rating as the best team in the division is slightly skewed by the big victories. Three players made our Team of the Year - Sahil Manchanda with 313 runs at 62.6, Naveen Malipatil with 246 at 49.20 and Vinay Datta who took 12 wickets at 8.5. Aayush Anand was also in the wickets with 10 at 11.10. As with all Dublin University seasons, each match is massively important. and whilst they could afford losing one match, the losses to Finglas and Tyrrelstown made the Terenure result somewhat irrelevant (in terms of the title). Where ever the team finished, it was going to be the University third string's worst league finish since 2011 (even winning the league would have been the same as 2012's 104th place), but 109th set a new "record"

Leinster 6 - 7th - (Pos in league - 110 (2018 - 113)) - Batting Rating 78 - Bowling Rating 78 - RpO for 4.28 - RpO against 5.24 - Youth %age (by appearances) 18.4% - Average age of team 29.6

If we ignore the exalted upper echelons of Leinster cricket (the top two league divisions, the various incarnations of the Senior Cup and the Alan Murray Cup), there are 30 players who have bowled at least 800 overs in the Open Competitions in the last nine seasons. It's an interesting list, with many great servants to Leinster cricket, young and old, and from most clubs. In fact most people will be friends with someone on the list, and my personal interest in this is with Paul Rodgers who has been toiling away up the hill in Rathmines for far too many seasons, and makes his first Team of the Year in 2019. No one has bowled more for the lower teams in Leinster CC in the last decade than Rodgers, and he was one of the few highlights in a tough season for the team, which saw only two wins. Rodgers took 16 wickets at 9 runs a piece, and the one match I turned up to watch was called off without any play so we spent an excellent afternoon in the bar instead. That padding may tell you that there isn't too much to report on in Leinster's season. Adarsh Kotwal was the one other bright spot with 184 runs at 23 and 11 wickets at 19.18. Leinster 6 actually improved on their 2018 league placing for the second season in a row, and have overtaken Clontarf to be the second best 6th team in the province, behind Merrion.

Railway Union 5 - 8th - (Pos in league - 111 (2018 - N/A)) - Batting Rating 72 - Bowling Rating 82 - RpO for 3.65 - RpO against 5.10 - Youth %age (by appearances) 23.1% - Average age of team 32.2

Another division, but the same story. The team that looks to being on youth the most is the team that comes bottom of the league. And in fact Leinster 6 were second on this list and came second last. Is it impossible for teams in the lower divisions to have success on the pitch at the same time as developing the future? Perhaps something to be discussed at the upcoming club day. A tough season for Railway Union 5, who were winless until mid August, whence back to back wins over Terenure and Wicklow County gave them a chance to move up the table - two more losses and a postponed match put paid to that. Batting was a real problem, and eight times they were dismissed for under 150. Remarkably not a single player totalled 100 league runs for the season, with Nicholas Jagoe leading the way with 95 at 11.88. In fact without Jagoe, the team would have struggled even more, and the winer of four previous Team of the Year nominations topped the bowling as well with 14 wickets at 14.36. Congratulations to Railway Union on entering a 5th team for the first time since 2016 - moves in the right direction.

The full Division 14 batting averages can be found here, whilst the bowling averages are here