2019 Open Division 17 review - Athlone 1 triumph at the first attempt

Open Division 17 stats

Leading all time run scorer (2019 only) - Ramesh Anand (Swords) - 312 runs @ 52.00
Most runs in a Division 17 season - Ramesh Anand (Swords) - 312 runs (2019)
Highest score - Arun Reddy Katheri - 112* - Tyrrelstown 3 vs Leinster 7 - Observatory Lane - 4 Aug 2019
Leading all time wicket taker (2019 only) - Anudeep Raju Basavaraju (Tyrrelstown) - 22 wkts @ 7.00
Most wickets in a Division 17 season - Anudeep Raju Basavaraju (Tyrrelstown) - 22 wkts (2019)
Best bowling - Lorcan Woodhouse - 6-19 - The Hills 5 vs Adamstown 7 - Corkagh Park 1 - 23 June 2019
Most matches - Saju John (Swords) - 14 (2019)

Team of the Year

Review
In Open Division 17, seven games resulted in a side being given a walkover and two matches were not played for other reasons (including rain).
Runs per wicket for all teams - 17.14 Runs per over for all teams - 4.10 - Division Competitiveness 42%

Athlone 1 - Champions - (Pos in league - 127 (2018 - N/A)) - Batting Rating 138 - Bowling Rating 150 - RpO for 5.17 - RpO against 3.31 - Youth %age (by appearances) 0.0%% - Average age of team 34.8

Athlone 1 triumphantly lifted the Division 17 title in their first year in competitive Cricket Leinster cricket. 134 teams finished the 2019 season - a new record, with the previous best being 128 teams in 2015 and 2018. Those extra teams saw a creation of a new 17th division for the first time, and Athlone are the first champions. All career statistics for Division 17 are solely for the 2019 season. Athlone finished the league as the 43rd best 1st team in the province (Dublin University played in the Senior League Cup instead, and aren't included in the 128 teams that competed in the league). Back to Athlone. Division 17 wsa one of the most uncompetitive divisions in the league, with the top three effectively playing a completely different game to the bottom five. Nine points separated the top three, before a 106 point gap to 4th place and the rest. On the surface Athlone found the going easy, with one loss, one tie, nine wins on the field, two walkovers received and a game that wasn't played. Dig a little deeper and it wasn't quite as straight forward. Their performance against the other teams in the top three - Tyrrelstown 3 and Swords 3, wasn't as good - seeing two wins, one loss and a tie - and one of those wins was by 1 wickets, emphasising that Athlone deserved to win the league - just! Ten of our Division 17 Team of the Year were from these top three teams, and three of them are from Athlone. The bowling attack was slightly stronger than the batting, and Varun Rao was the best of the bowling, with 20 wickets at 6.05. The two other TotY members were batsmen - Venkatesan Venugopal with 221 runs at 44.2, and Prince Paulson with 235 runs at 39.17. Paulson was the team's highest run scorer, and the season was characterised by low scoring matches - mainly due to the strength of the Atlhone bowling attack. Only once did they need to go past 200. George Jebaraj scored 198 at 22, Sudhakar Mani 139 at 17.38, Varun Rao 123 at 30.75 and Yash Khatri 105 at 21. The bowling attack was completed by Khatri taking 16 wickets at 12.88 and Jebaraj with 12 at 14.75. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the season was that only Clondalkin, Swords, Tyrrelstown and Phoenix made the trip to Athlone's beautiful Doon ground.

Tyrrelstown 3 - 2nd - (Pos in league - 128 (2018 - N/A)) - Batting Rating 151 - Bowling Rating 153 - RpO for 4.97 - RpO against 3.42 - Youth %age (by appearances) 0.0% - Average age of team 34.2

The strongest batting in the division, and the second strongest bowling attack, but Tyrrelstown 3 couldn't quite piece it together to get the extra two points in the league that was needed to overhaul Athlone, in what what the Tyrrelstown third string's first season in the league. It's difficult to ignore the one wicket loss away to Athlone. Having set Athlone 159 to win, Tyrrelstown almost had the match (and although they didn't know it at the time, the league!) won, when Keith Brennan was the 9th Athlone player dismissed with the score on 125. Still needing 35 runs, Athlone's last wicket pair got home with seven balls to spare. The scorecard doesn't record how many dropped catches and near misses there were in those last few overs, but if any of them had been taken, Tyrrelstown 3 would have been champions. The age profiles of the teams in this division make for interesting reading, with the top three teams all eschewing youth, as they battled for glory. That brought short term success on the field, with five Tyrrelstown players making our Team of the Year. Four all rounders dominated the team - Anudeep Raju Basavaraju with 251 runs at 35.86 and 22 wickets at 7, Arun Reddy Katheri with 221 runs at 27.63 and 15 wickets at 9.93, Naveen Kumar Baddam with 228 runs at 28.5 and 12 wickets at 15.67 - all three making the Team of the Year and Anup Kishen (227 runs at 20.64 and 14 wickets at 10.86) who didn't. Rajesh Karmakonda took 19 wickets at 8.95 and Sai Chaitanya Govulakonda was the leading wicket keeper with 13 dismissals (as well as being the team's leading run scorer with 296 runs at 37).

Swords 3 - 3rd - (Pos in league - 129 (2018 - 128)) - Batting Rating 113 - Bowling Rating 161 - RpO for 4.61 - RpO against 2.73 - Youth %age (by appearances) 6.9%% - Average age of team 33.7

In their second season in the league, Swords 3 dropped one place to 129th overall, but it could have been better, and much of what was written above can be repeated for Swords 3. The season all came down to one match at the end of the season, and although there was no dramatic last wicket stand as there was in the Athlone/Tyrrelstown match, Athlone had only two balls to spare when they beat Swords by 4 wickets in the last game of the season. Two balls was all it was. If Athlone had taken three more balls to get to their target, Swords would have been 2019 champions. The team used a massive squad of 38 players, and that makes the analysis a little harder. They were by far and away the best bowling attack in the division, but yet none of their bowlers appeared on the Team of the Year! The problem is that they had so many good bowlers, who had to share the wickets around. 24 bowlers took at least one wicket, four took nine wickets in the season, with only two getting to ten - Don Joy with 12 at 11.67 and Saju John with 10 at 13.50. But although individuals may not have taken the spoils, the team definitely did. Eight times the opposition were bowled out for under 100, and only once did a team get past 150 - Athlone's 172-6 in the final game of the season. And whilst the batting was only the fourth best in the division, a couple of players doe make the TotY. Ramesh Anand was the leading run scorer in the division, scoring 312 runs at 52, and he is joined by the aforementioned Saju John, who in addition to his ten wickets, scored 204 runs at 29.14. But with so many players playing (which is a good thing!) no other players put together really impressive seasons. Of all the clubs in the province fielding three teams in 2019, Mullingar have the most players with 66, followed by Clondalkin with 62 and Laois and Swords with 60. All clubs in a healthy position.

Clondalkin 3 - 4th - (Pos in league - 130 (2018 - N/A)) - Batting Rating 84 - Bowling Rating 107 - RpO for 3.68 - RpO against 3.78 - Youth %age (by appearances) 33.1% - Average age of team 29.6

In their first season in league cricket, Clondalkin finished in a creditable mid-table position. In this division of two halves, Clondalkin very much came top of the second half - top of the teams who used their Division 17 team as a nursery for youth players as opposed to as a team in pursuit of silverware. Four consecutive wins across August constituted the highlight, but as we have stated several times, they were never going to be able to beat the top three teams ahead - but won more than they lost against the lower teams. The initial feeling was that Swords 3 used a massive number of players, but their 38 was a good bit short of the 42 players used by Clondalkin! Again, the large numbers meant that few were likely to have had productive seasons. Fifteen year old Aalif Mostofa scored 50* to see home the team against Adamstown 7, but elsewhere it was the Abul Shapon show, with the stalwart scoring 228 runs at 25.33 and 14 wickets at 13.29. In all cricket in Leinster since 2011, Shapon lies 85th in the number of wickets taken - 167 at 13.39 and is one of only 96 players to have been named on three or more Teams of the Year.

The Hills 5 - 5th - (Pos in league - 131 (2018 - N/A)) - Batting Rating 150 - Bowling Rating 108 - RpO for 4.67 - RpO against 4.28 - Youth %age (by appearances) 37.7% - Average age of team 30.0

The second best batting team in the division, and the fourth best overall, The Hills 5 were beset by off field issues, which is perhaps a harsh criticism as The Hills entered a fifth side for the first time since the 2011 season. Only seven matches were actually played, with four walkovers given, one received and two more matches just not played. They didn't play against Athlone at all and didn't get a result against Leinster - the away match being abandoned but not replayed. Lorcan Woodhouse provided a highlight, making our Team of the Year with an excellent 13 wickets at 10.62, including a career best 6-19 against Adamstown. Conor Maguire took 10 wickets at 11.5 and the leading run scorer was Jason Murtagh with 145 at 36.25, including 104* also against Adamstown, one of only two tons in Division 17 this year.

Phoenix 6 - 6th - (Pos in league - 132 (2018 - N/A)) - Batting Rating 64 - Bowling Rating 83 - RpO for 3.55 - RpO against 4.54 - Youth %age (by appearances) 42.3% - Average age of team 28.1

With these bottom five teams in Division 17, the aim is very much to give players an opportunity to play cricket, to provide enjoyment and to plant the seeds that may grow into the club, interprovincial and international players of the future. The bare stats paint a picture of a tough season for Phoenix 6, with the batting in particular struggling to get going (seven times they were bowled out for under 70). But there always plenty of highlights to pick out, and performances that bode well for the future. 13 year old Sam Morris scored 53* against Adamstown, Daniel Sugrue took 3-15 against Swords, 13 year old Christopher Scully took 4-18 against Clondalkin, 15 year old Ryan Condell took 3-10 against Athlone, 14 year old Thomas Breen took 3-36 against Leinster and Hanzalah Babur took 4-11 against Adamstown. Scully was the leading wicket taker with 11 wickets at 11.27, and the veteran Trakulara Naga Venu was leading run scorer with 136 at 19.43 along with 10 wickets at 16.80.

Adamstown 7 - 7th - (Pos in league - 133 (2018 - N/A)) - Batting Rating 62 - Bowling Rating 49 - RpO for 2,86 - RpO against 6.11 - Youth %age (by appearances) 52.2% - Average age of team 27.8

A startling fact for you to start the review of the 2019 season for Adamstown 7. Adamstown are now the joint largest club in the province in terms of players playing in Open Competitions. 115 players played for both Merrion and Adamstown, with Leinster next on the list on 110. In only nine seasons they have gone from 30 players to where they are now. But as everyone involved in cricket knows, there are certain things in a club take a bit longer, and of those is growing a youth section to be able to contribute to adult teams. Adamstown aren't quite there yet, but they are making big strides, and their team in Division 17 was more youthful than either that of Phoenix or Leinster, who presumably have similar aims. But as with Phoenix and Leinster, the season was tough with runs and wickets tough to come by. In a division that was literally men against boys, there is not much point in dwelling over the fact that the men came out on top, so again, were going to look at some youth highlights. The team only scored four 50s all season, but two of those were by 14 year old Umar Bashir, who hit 51 twice against Athlone and The Hills. The innings against Athlone was one of only two 50s scored against the Division 17 champions all season. 15 year old Sidharth Muthu also had a day to remember, taking 5-8 against Clondalkin, as Adamstown had their best result of the season, winning by 10 wickets. The team's leading run scorer was Vamshi Kher with 149 runs at 49.67 and the top wicket takers were three bowlers with six wickets - Sidharth Muthu (at 15.67), 14 year old Vikalp Negi (at 19.83) and Rajesh Shetty (at 26.50).

Leinster 7 - 8th - (Pos in league - 134 (2018 - 126)) - Batting Rating 93 - Bowling Rating 48 - RpO for 3.55 - RpO against 5.35 - Youth %age (by appearances) 27.1% - Average age of team 35.5

Leinster 7 seem to have got a little lost in 2019. As we have repeatedly described, there are several different aims to having a team playing in Division 17. The one that Athlone, Tyrrelstown and Swords followed was the path to future glory, with promotion being the aim for 2019. Clondalkin, The Hills, Phoenix and Adamstown primarily used it as a way to develop youth. Leinster came 5th on that front - better than the glory chasers, but behind those who were using the team to advance the players of the future. So it can be assumed that Leinster were using the team for a different reason, that of giving cricketers a match, and letting them enjoy this great sport - a worthy approach I suppose. So when we looked for youth players who scored 50s or took three wickets in an innings, there weren't any. The season started well, with three wins, but after June 16, there were eight consecutive lost matches, as well as three walkovers that were given over the season. The top run scorer was Muhammad Murtaza with 118 runs at 39.33, the leading wicket taker was a tie between Niall Carroll's 8 at 26.38 and Usman Malik's 8 at 29.75. Leinster became the 8th club to come bottom of the league pile in the last nine seasons, but as long as it gives people the opportunity to play league cricket, any league position can have a sunny side.

The full Division 17 batting averages can be found here, whilst the bowling averages are here