BUAKIT DISTRICT SERIES T20 TEAMS CONFIRMED - ROUND 1 (23.05)

The teams for the first round of fixtures in the T20 section of the BUAKIT District Series have been confirmed, with all four sides set to be in action in College Park this afternoon.

The 14:30 start sees Dublin City taking on Dublin University, followed at 18:00 by South Dublin & Midlands facing off against Fingal.

Dublin City are captained by Swapnil Modgil and feature players from 4 clubs, with Merrion, Railway Union, Pembroke and Clontarf all represented in the side. Noah Smith returns to keep wicket, whilst Philippe le Roux is fresh off the back of his Leinster Lightning debut and will add depth to the batting. Young Pembroke all-rounder Dan Murray is the fresh face in the side.

Dublin University meanwhile boast some serious talent in their side, skipper Gavin Hoey is a key man in the Leinster Lightning side, and is joined by his Interprovincial team-mate Mikey O’Reilly. With the bat their senior players looking to lead the way include the likes of David Vincent, Rory Betley and Yash Balasubramaniam, whilst Jamie Forbes’ bowling is another senior string to the side’s bow.

DUBLIN CITY; Swapnil Modgil (Capt, Merrion), Hedayat Ullah Khogiani (Railway Union), Philippe le Roux (Railway Union), Noah Smith (WK, Pembroke), Dan Murray (Pembroke), Esmat Ibrahimi (Railway Union), Danny Forkin (Merrion), Ashil Prakash (Railway Union), Sean O’Brien (Railway Union), Cillian McDonnell (Clontarf), Andrew Doheny (Merrion)

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY; Gavin Hoey (Capt), David Vincent, Rory Betley, Yash Balasubramaniam, Jamie Forbes, Mikey O’Reilly, John Gibbons, Will Barker, David Cosgrave, John O’Hara (WK), Bharath Hedge

For the evening game, Fingal are relatively unchanged and are once again captained by Brandon Kruger, who leads a strong batting unit featuring Cameron Rowe, Chris de Freitas and Suliman Safi. Their seamers are led by Sebastien De Oliveira and Sam Willemse, along with Cian Nulty, whilst in the spin department they have yesterday’s Lightning debutant Lues, along with Mike Frost and Nasir Totakhil giving them an excellent T20 bowling line-up. In all there are 5 clubs represented with players from each of The Hills, Balbriggan, North County, Malahide and Rush all featuring in the 12 man squad.

South Dublin & Midlands meanwhile have something of a similar line-up to the last time the two sides met, however are without a number of players who were due to return to the side for their cancelled fixture with Dublin University. North Kildare’s Husnain Maroof captains the side and will fill a middle order role alongside club mate Abid Taniwal. Younas Ahmadzai will relish this opportunity in T20 cricket and should come into his own in this fixture, whilst Mark Tonge and Tristan de Beer have shown the ability to get the ball to the boundary in the opening 50 over game. Leinster are the most represented club in the squad with 5 players selected, including the returning Tom Johnson along with left-arm paceman Jai Moondra who bolsters the seaming ranks in the absence of Olly Riley and Reuben Wilson.

FINGAL; Brandon Kruger (Capt, The Hills) Cameron Rowe (Balbriggan) Suliman Safi (North County) Chris de Freitas (Balbriggan) Dylan Lues (Balbriggan) Sebastien De Oliveira (Balbriggan) Sam Willemse (Balbriggan) Luke Whelan (North County) Mike Frost (Malahide) Cian Nulty (The Hills) Nasir Totakhil (Rush) Matthew Langan (Malahide)

SOUTH DUBLIN & MIDLANDS; Husnain Maroof (Capt, North Kildare) Abid Taniwal (North Kildare) Younas Ahmadzai (Malahide) Alan Joseph Mathew (North County) Tristan de Beer (Leinster) Mark Tonge (Leinster) Devan Keenan (Leinster) Tom Johnson (Leinster) Matthew Langan (WK, Malahide) Srihan Karpe (Railway Union) Jai Moondra (Leinster)