Day of Upsets in Sports Hub Senior League Cup

The career of Peter Boyd as a psychic has definitely been put on the back burner after Dublin University, Cork County and YMCA had upset victories in the Sports Hub Leinster Senior League Cup on Saturday June 19^th.

In Group A, YMCA were on their travels once again but returned from Rush with a 7-wicket victory.

Cillian McDonnell (3-12) and Mikey O’Reilly (2-15) helped restrict Rush to 99 all out. In response Jack Tector, perhaps with a point to prove having been left out of the Leinster Lightning squad for the InterProvincials, struck 25 off 18, and Andrew Blair White 37 off 20 as YM cruised to victory with five and a half overs to spare.

Leinster backed up their win over YM with a comprehensive 9-wicket victory over Terenure. Donal Lynch (28) and Daniel Wicks (21) were the only batsmen to pass 20 as Terenure struggled to 101/7 off their 20 overs. Aviral Shukla’s steady 30* and Joey Carroll’s rapid 47 not out saw Leinster home with almost four overs to spare.

In Group B, Cork County had a 64-run opening partnership to thank for the big upset of round three. Abubakar Saddique(33) and Joubert Pienaar (30) laid the platform of County’s 137/9 in Malahide, despite Callum Riches taking 4-24.

In response, Rudolph Pollard (4-19) never let Malahide get going, but it was Saddique picking up the crucial wicket of Muntha (29) that probably made the difference as the home side came up just short in the chase.

Meanwhile in Clontarf, the game that could have gone either way saw the evergreen Kenny Carroll (70) make the difference. Carroll made almost half of Railway Union’s 144/4 in 20 overs.

Clontarf couldn’t quite get there in response as Glenn Querl (2-15) took the key wicket of Eoghan Delany and Andrew Poynter was forced to retire hurt. Despite gallant efforts from David Vincent and Kashif Ali, Railway had nine runs to spare at the end.

Group C was the only group to really go to form and predictions as Merrion had a big 102-run over North Kildare and Pembroke beat Balbriggan by 20 runs on Duckworth Lewis Stern after an injury to Ghanim Dara meant there was an early end to the fixture.

John Anderson did what John Anderson does as he fell agonisingly lose to a century as Merrion racked up 175/7 off their allocation. Anderson’s 93 came off 57 deliveries with nine boundaries and five maximums.

A daunting task for North Kildare was made harder by losing a wicket in each of the first two overs, before James Hitchcock bowled a remarkable spell of four overs, one maiden and five for eight runs to bring a dramatic and quick end to proceedings.

In Balbriggan, an unfortunate injury to Ghanim Dara with Pembroke 20 runs ahead on DLS meant a victory on the road for the Sandymount side. 50* from Christopher De Freitas had led Balbriggan to 129/6. In reply, 39 from Rob Kelly and 32 from Diarmaid Tucker saw Pembroke off to a solid start, however at 100/4 the game was stopped leading to them ultimately winning the game using DLS.

Group D saw another massive upset as Dublin University travelled to The Hills, flying with two big wins from two, and emerged with a 5-wicket victory.

Dylan Blignaut (51) top-scored as The Hills made 131 all out off their 20 overs with Jack Atkinson taking 4-28 for the Students. David Cosgrave (39) got the chase off to a fine start, but it was the experienced Nicolaas Pretorius with an unbeaten 54 who saw the visitors home with just a single ball to spare.

In the final game of the day, North County defeated Phoenix by 8-runs.