Andrew Balbirnie continues his fine form for Ireland
Having been completely dominant in the first half of the season, Clontarf have suffered something of a meltdown losing three of their last four league games. What this means is that the title race is now wide open. Clontarf still top the table with two matches to play, but there are now no fewer than four teams that can overtake them. The fact much the same teams, swapping The Hills for Phoenix and Pembroke, could also find themselves in the relegation play-off spot provides an unexpectedly exciting end to the season.
The days events started with the news that Clontarf were in trouble against Pembroke. Two early wickets [again] for Kim Garth had put Clontarf on the back foot. It scarcely got any better as wickets fell in clusters. At 104 for 7 Clontarf looked like they could be out for their lowest score of the season. In the end a rear guard action by David Delany [30] ensuring that they made it to 158 in 48 overs. The wickets were shared for Pembroke with Kim Garth [2/28] making the initial breakthrough, Ryan Hopkins [2/21] taking out the rest of the top order, Jack Balbirnie [2/24] making sure there was no mid-innings recovery and and JJ Garth finishing it off [3/19].
A score of 158 was never likely to be enough but Pembroke’s batting has been brittle this season and Clontarf would have had some hope that after a couple of quick wickets, nerves might do the rest. But it was never to be as Andrew Balbirnie [86] and Fiachra Tucker [57] set about the Clontarf bowling and propelled the score quickly to 145 to set Pembroke up for a seven wicket win in the 29th over. The only bright spot [really just a glimmer of light] came from Sameer Dutt [3/25] who took three quick wickets at the end and rescued a point. This could still be important in the final reckoning.
But if the happenings in Sydney Parade were exciting because of the impact of the result on the league - in Fingal the events were to unfold in the manner of a Hitchcock movie. Two games. Two dramatic finishes. Both won by the team batting second by the closest of margins - one wicket - and in one case on the second last ball of the day. It can sometimes be difficult to explain to the unbeliever why cricket is so absorbing. This is why. The gradual build up of tension over a long period - with periodic twists and turns in fortune - culminating in a series of actions where the fate of the game can turn on a single ball. But enough of the hyperbole. What about the games themselves?
The Hills v Leinster [2nd v 3rd] - who was going to emerge with the best chance of challenging Clontarf? Leinster batted first and were in trouble from the start with two wickets down for 21 - both to Ryan Cartwright - with further wickets falling at regular intervals. At one stage Leinster were 63/6 before a 90 run partnership between Craig Mallon, last out on 68, and Danny Coad [42] got Leinster back in the game. The final score of 175 may not have felt like enough but it was something to bowl at. The Hills got off to a terrible start at one stage were 3/3, a run out and two wickets to Joe Carroll [4/32]. But then The Hills seemed to made things safe as Cormac McLoughlin Gavin [51] and Max Sorensen [64] put over a 100 partnership. Obviously feeling that their supporters had too easy a time of it, The Hills then proceeded to lose wickets at regular intervals and lefts it to their 10 [Luke Clinton] and 11 [Yaqoob Ali] to get the the seven runs needed.
Meanwhile, in a matinee double bill, another thriller was been shown close by in North County. Although Phoenix had spent much of the early part of the year in the higher reaches of the table, a loss of form meant that they now needed to shore up their position and try to move away from the relegation play-off spot. North County have also bounced up and down the league this season but by the 12th round of competition they too wanted to avoid being drawn into a relegation battle. Phoenix batted first and despite losing Reinhardt Strydom early a series of good partnerships saw them reach 190/3 thanks in the main to half-centuries from captain Nicolaas Pretorius [73] and Adam Chester [64]. But the rest of the batting failed to build on this platform after Andrew Sheridan [4/54] had taken out the middle order. 220 all out, with four overs left unused, was a disappointing outcome.
North County started well reaching 51 for the loss of only one wicket before a batting collapse saw four wickets fall for 28 runs. But critically these wickets did not include that of Eddie Richardson. With good support from Nathan Rooney [21] and Conor Sheil [24] Richardson battled through and somehow managed to drag North County over the line, winning by a single wicket on the second last ball. Ben White got 4/31 for Phoenix. Phoenix will surely look back on this game as one that got away and will rue the failure to bat out their 50 overs.
On the day that was in it the final match between Cork and YMCA may seem something of an anti-climax. But it was an important win for YCMA who had previously lost to Cork [their only win of the campaign]. And at 74/1 the Cork supporters might have hoped that they might be able to upset YMCA again. But a major collapse, mainly engineered by Harry Tector [5/16], resulted in a total of only 109. YMCA ended up making heavy weather of chasing down the score and lost six wickets in the process. But the result was never really in doubt.
So a dramatic day in RCD1, with the prospect opening up of a very exciting end to the season. Something that did not seem all that likely a few weeks back.
Finally, thanks to the scorers for getting in the scorecards during the day and to the supporters who sent in updates. Not being able to get Live Scores from mid-season has been disappointing but there was pretty good coverage of the games yesterday. All the scorecards are on the website and the table has been updated.