2019 Open Division 15 review - DLR County 4 prevail with strength in depth

Open Division 15 stats

Leading all time run scorer (2015-2019) - Ian Smale (Greystones) - 512 runs @ 28.44
Most runs in a Division 15 season - Bilal Alam (Mullingar) - 433 runs (2018)
Highest score - Vishnu Vardhan Reddy Yannam - 127 - Carlow 2 vs North Kildare 4 - St Patrick's College - 22 Jul 2017
Leading all time wicket taker (2015-2019) - Rajesh Adi (Knockharley) - 39 wkts @ 10.31
Most wickets in a Division 15 season - Rajesh Adi (Knockharley) - 28 wkts (2019)
Best bowling - Munir Khan - 8-5 - Civil Service 4 vs Rush 4 - Civil Service - 28 June 2015
Most matches - Foysal Bashar (North Kildare)/Conor Mount (Mullingar) - 25 (2015-2019)

Team of the Year

Review
Ringcommons 2 played four matches, before withdrawing from the league - those games are included in the stats. In Open Division 15, 45 games were played and one other game resulted in a side being given a walkover.
Runs per wicket for all teams - 18.55 Runs per over for all teams - 4.50 - Division Competitiveness 79%

DLR County 4 - Champions - (Pos in league - 112 (2018 - N/A)) - Batting Rating 137 - Bowling Rating 123 - RpO for 5.15 - RpO against 3.99 - Youth %age (by appearances) 5.6% - Average age of team 32.3

A first season in the league for DLR County 4, and like Athlone 1 in Division 17, a league title at the first attempt. The club went straight into 12th place on the list of best 4th teams in the province. Their 3rd team are also 12th, their 2nd team 14th, and their 1st team 18th - a distribution that would be fairly normal. The season started with an OCC decided defeat to Clontarf, but there followed a brilliant run of 11 wins on the pitch, that meant the season was wrapped up by the time they lost their last game to Clondalkin 2. Title winning teams are normally characterised by perhaps three or four starts who make our team of the league, followed by another three or four who may get to 200 runs or 10 wickets in the season. But somewhat uniquely, DLR County 4 have followed a completely different pattern. These reviews only tend to look at players who have played at least five games - a player can not be said to be part of league team if they only play a handful of games. And so we look at the make up of DLR's squad with a slightly different slant to normal. Only one player makes TotY, Rajit Patel scoring 366 runs at 33.27 and 13 wickets at 13. His first season in Leinster was a success, although Rajit was unable to hold down a place on higher teams, playing only five games on the 3rds. Kartikay Khurana took 10 wickets at 6.4, but only played four games. And that is it. No one else got to 10 wickets or 200 runs. So who scored all the runs and wickets needed to win a league? Seven others played over half of the matches, and amongst those only Suyash Vaidya really contributed with 84 runs at 21 and 5 wickets at 9.8. And as unremarkable as those figures are, they are the type of player that took DLR County to the title. There were 13 players who played five games or less but who averaged 20 or more with the bat or 15 or less with the ball, and it is these players who propelled DLR to the league. Eight of the thirteen hardly played any other cricket - they just wanted to play for their club but perhaps didn't as much availability as they wanted. The other five were as follows: Tony David Kurian (53 runs at 26.5) at the start of the season before being promoted), Vijay Shankar Kumar (42 runs in one innings at 9 wickets at 3.56 in three matches in May before being promoted to the 3rds), Kartikay Khurana (23 runs in one innings and 10 wickets at 6.4 in five matches in May before a rapid promotion, Swapn Joshi (157 in two matches in April and July), and veteran Vinu Jacob (who scored 33 in his one game in April).

Clontarf 6 - 2nd - (Pos in league - 113 (2018 - 110)) - Batting Rating 113 - Bowling Rating 120 - RpO for 4.62 - RpO against 4.11 - Youth %age (by appearances) 20.0% - Average age of team 30.6

On the surface, a successful season for Clontarf 6. But for a pair of losses in late May away to Wexford Wanderers and Knockharley, the title could have been theirs. Against that, only in two seasons in the last eight have the team finished lower in the league (in 2014 and 2015). Naveen Bachani was very much the star of the show, but again a detailed look is worthwhile! He took a Cricket Leinster career best 6-17 in the home victory over Wexford Wanderers, scored 186 runs at 20.67 and 23 wickets at 10.52 to make the Team of the Year for the second successive year. That always sets alarm bells ringing - he was amongst the best players in Division 14 in 2018, so it shouldn't be any surprise that he was also amongst the best in Division 15 in 2019. He has an excellent record for Clontarf 6, taking 64 wickets at 13.44 in 51 matches, but with only seven matches played for Clontarf 5, surely he is worth a punt on higher teams? Shahzad Ahamd Khan was the other Clontarf player in our Team of the Year, very much following the "DLR Model", playing five matches, and taking 10 wickets at 8.7 without playing any other matches all year. Plenty of others contributed well with bat and ball. Raj Arya was the leading run scorer with 232 runs at 25.78, and Tariq Hussain scored exactly 200 at 28.57 as well as taking 12 wickets at 19. The other note worthy bowler was Vihwajeet Vibhute who took 10 wickets at 13.40.

Wexford Wanderers 2 - 3rd - (Pos in league - 114 (2018 - 109)) - Batting Rating 131 - Bowling Rating 117 - RpO for 4.92 - RpO against 4.00 - Youth %age (by appearances) 0.0% - Average age of team 32.2

It can be tough in these reviews in getting the balance right between criticism and congratulations. Wexford Wanderers 2 just missed out on promotion, with one more win needed somewhere along the way. So they had to settle for 3rd place and 114th in the league. That is the lowest postion that the team has had in the league. Against that, it is only the 5th time in the last nine seasons that Wexford Wanderers have entered a second team, so it is very much a half glass full situation. Since they finished in 88th place in 2013, there are 17 extra teams in the league, so the drop isn't quite as bad as it may seem. And the real Sliding Doors moment was against DLR County 4 on September 7th. Needing to defend 189 to lift the title, DLR were 157-7 and Wexford must have fancied being crowned champions. But fate intervened, DLR scored the last 33 runs with one ball and one wicket to spare, and instead of being champions, Wexford ended third. Five of their players made our Team of the Year. Stefan Carty was selected as the wicketkeeper with most dismissals in the division, Sean Dunk was one of three batsmen to be selected, with 210 runs at 35. The others were Ahmad Oriakhail (who scored 294 runs at 73.5, although it has to be said that 125 of those were in the last game of the season against Clondalkin - they all count!) and Anjith Varghese with 229 at 38.17. The bowler who made our divisional selection was Sami Jan (20 wickets at 11.95 and 197 runs at 28.14). He has now taken exactly 50 wickets for Wexford, the 9th player to achieve the feat since our records began in 2011. The one thing that held Wexford back was probably the lack of bowling support for Jan - no one else took more than Javid Shirzada's nine.

Clondalkin 2 - 4th - (Pos in league - 115 (2018 - 123)) - Batting Rating 106 - Bowling Rating 97 - RpO for 4.99 - RpO against 4.51 - Youth %age (by appearances) 1.5% - Average age of team 33.1

A decent enough season for Clondalkin 2, who finished eight places higher than in 2018, and were a solid mid table. Whilst their 3rd team was very much looking at developing players for the future, Clondalkin 2 largely eschewed youth in favour of league position (in common with most other teams in this division). The last day win over champions DLR County 4 was undoubtedly the highlight of the season, mainly down to Karthik Sridhar's 55, with the home win over Wexford Wanderers 2 not too far behind. Three players were the foundations around which the side was built - all playing in at least ten of the twelve games that the team played. Zeeshan Saleem played in every match, scoring 259 at 21.58 and taking 11 wickets at 20.27. Suresh Chandra Royala scored 270 at 30, and the one batsman to make our Team of the Year was Arun Nagarajan who scored 241 at 30.13. He was joined there by Maruf Rashid who took 17 wickets at 11.24.

Knockharley 3 - 5th - (Pos in league - 116 (2018 - 111)) - Batting Rating 97 - Bowling Rating 104 - RpO for 4.52 - RpO against 4.72 - Youth %age (by appearances) 29.6% - Average age of team 34.3

Knockharley 3 are another team who has experienced a squeeze as the Leinster leagues have expanded over recent years. 105th-107 between 2011 and 2015, they were then 111th between 2016 and 2018 before another slip of five places to this year's 2016. That isn't the end of the world, and is more a statement of fact, in a league structure which has seen huge changes in recent years. They were solidly 5th place as well, a long way behind 4th, but never at any risk of dropping down to the relegation places. The one victory that wasn't over the teams below, was an excellent 43 run over Clontarf in May, when 52 from keeper Usman Ishaq, and three wicket for Raj Adi and Kanti Prasad set up the win. Adi was the dominant force for the team, and considering he was in the Division 8 Team of the Year last year, this should be no surprise. His 28 wickets at 10.57 guaranteed him a place on this year's Division 15 Team of the Year, and are the most wickets taken in a Division 15 season, beating Mullingar's Conor Mount, who took 25 last season. He took 7-44, a career best against Wexford , the 9th time he has taken five wickets in a Cricket Leinster innings. Adi was also the leading run scorer (with 170 at 18.89) in a batting unit that never really got going, they scored 189/1 against Laois, but lost at least nine wickets on eight occasions. The bowling was better, with 16 year old Zohaib Ali taking 14 at 21.64 and a slightly older George Angel taking 10 wickets at 18.8.

Ashbourne 2 - 6th - (Pos in league - 117 (2018 - 122)) - Batting Rating 71 - Bowling Rating 81 - RpO for 3.69 - RpO against 4.66 - Youth %age (by appearances) 2.9% - Average age of team 37.9

A tough season for Ashbourne 2, who's two wins were over Laois. But as with other teams, looking at the overall picture gives a different view. This was the highest level that they had ever finished, ending up five places higher than in 2018. This slant can give an odd view on a league - Ashbourne were successful because they are still improving their league position year on year, whilst some teams that finish higher should be disappointed. It's up to the reader to work out whether that view is valid! At the level of individual performance, there wasn't a whole lot to shout from the roofs about. Anoop Bolledla was both the team's leading run scorer with 157 at 15.7 and wicket taker with 8 wickets at 29. Sean Harvison scored the only 50 with 62 against Ringcommons. Onwards and upwards in 2020.

Laois 3 - 7th - (Pos in league - 118 (2018 - 112)) - Batting Rating 64 - Bowling Rating 60 - RpO for 3.53 - RpO against 5.72 - Youth %age (by appearances) 24.8% - Average age of team 38.7

Whilst the Laois 1sts and 2nds actually had decent seasons compared to the public perception, the 3rd team struggled, and ended up 41 places lower than the team's highest spot of 77th in 2013. But considering the off the field work in the club, and the creation of the new ground in Stradbally, the team get a free pass! The batting started well, scoring 215 at home to Ashbourne in April, but unfortunately that was the last time that they passed 150. Muhammad Ashiq was the leading run scorer with 214 runs at 26.75 including the only team 50 - 71 against Ashbourne 2. Leading wicket taker was Stephen Saunderson with 10 wickets at 18.6. Saunderson's total included 6-36 at home to Clondalkin, a career best that improved on his 4-20 against Knockharley 3 in 2014. For over three months, the performance held the record as the best bowling on the new ground in Cricket Leinster competitions - before being beaten in August by Matthew Auret's 6-26 for Laois 1.

The full Division 15 batting averages can be found here, whilst the bowling averages are here