Division 12 stats
Leading all time run scorer (2011-2018) - Alan Maginnis (Phoenix) - 928 runs @ 27.29
Most runs in a Division 12 season - Muhammad Junaid Ashfaq (Phoenix) - 533 runs (2017)
Highest score - Abdul Sattar (Leinster) - 200 - Leinster 5 vs Halverstown 1 - St Columba's College - 11 Aug 2018
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2018) - Neville Case (Halverstown) - 73 wkts @ 16.22
Most wickets in a Division 12 season - John Threadgold (Halverstown) - 28 wkts (2018)
Best bowling - Jatinder Kumar (Lucan) - 7-14 - Lucan 2 vs Bagenalstown 2 - McGrath Park - 7 May 2018
Highest team score - 338-4 - Leinster 5 vs Halverstown 1 - St Columba's College - 11 August 2018
Lowest team score - 12 all out - Merrion 7 v Malahide 5 - Malahide 1 - 15 Aug 2015
Most Matches in Division 12 (2011-2018) - Neville Case (Halverstown) - 49 (2013-2018)
AIB 1 won their third league trophy in a row, adding Division 12 to their Division 14 trophy in 2017 and Division 16 trophy in 2016.
Cricket Leinster's new website will be launching in the spring, but until then all player stats for the last eight seasons can be found at https://www2.cricketstatz.com/ss/web.aspx?mode=104&club=4530&team=.
Team of the Year (listed in the order, five batsmen/one wicketkeeper/five bowlers)
Batsmen: Sana Ullah (AIB) (Div 14, 2017), Muhammad Fawad Rahim (Leinster), Sandip Kumar (Lucan), Umer Naru (Halverstown), Richard Greene (Halverstown)
Wicketkeeper: Hubert Beaumont (Halverstown)
Bowlers: Vivekanand Swami (AIB) (Div 14, 2017), Jimson Joseph (Swords), Basil George (Swords), Alvin Isaac (Swords), Sathya Narayanan (AIB) >
Review
Runs per wicket for all teams - 19.37 Runs per over for all teams - 4.91
AIB 1 - Champions - (Pos in league - 90 (2017 - 103)) - Batting Rating 125 - Bowling Rating 126 - RpO for 5.62 - RpO against 4.25
A disappointing year for AIB - after winning every trophy available to them in 2016 and 2017, they "only" won Division 12 in 2018! Although the final margin was only 23 points over Bagenalstown 2, in reality, it was never that close as AIB didn't need to bother playing Leinster at the end of the season, and Bagenalstown beat AIB in what was effectively a dead match. After a couple of narrow early season losses (to Swords and Lucan), AIB put together a ten match unbeaten run that was enough to secure the league. Within those ten were three of over 100 runs and a couple more that were 7 or 8 wickets, as they proved once again that they are a force to be reckoned with. Two players stood head and shoulders over the others and both made Team of the Year for the second successive year. Sana Ullah was leading run scorer with 356 runs at 44.5, to go with 14 wickets at 11.93 (including 6-4 against Swords in Newbridge Demesne), whilst Vivekanand Swami was leading wicket taker with 19 wickets at 7.11 along with 301 runs at 37.63. Sathya Narayanan was the other player worthy of special mention, making his first Team of the Year in his third season in Leinster cricket with 14 wickets at 10.36. As with all strong teams there were many others who performed - with the bat, Kaushik Reddy scored 222 at 27.75 and Subrat Behera hit 206 at 29.43; with the ball, Dharmanna Kori took 12 wickets at 22.33. It will be interesting to see whether the OCC promotes AIB multiple divisions again, and how they fare if they are playing at Division 10 or higher.
Bagenalstown 2 - Runners up - (Pos in league - 91 (2017 - 97)) - Batting Rating 83 - Bowling Rating 146 - RpO for 4.17 - RpO against 4.01
Here's a interesting stat. Only 14 teams have improved their league position in each of the last four seasons. There are multiple reasons behind this, but to generalise it is clubs who are well organised, and are now using those well organised resources to rise up the leagues. For the record, those fourteen are Adamstown 1, Adamstown 2, Adamstown 5, AIB 1, Ashbourne 1, Balbriggan 3, Castleknock 1, Clontarf 3, Longford 2, Pembroke 2, Slieve Bloom 1, Sword 1..... and Bagenalstown 1 and Bagenalstown 2. The Baggies' 175th anniversary celebrations were pretty much a successful affair, with the team finishing in runners-up spot and 91st in the league - a position they last held in 2013. With McGrath Park holding on to its traditional virtues of being a difficult place to score runs, Bagenalstown's bowling attack was very much their strength. Merrion 7 were the only team to pass 150 in McGrath Park, and champions AIB 1 were bowled out for 63. There was a very distinctive quartet of bowlers who were central that bowling strength. Khurram Mumtaz took 22 wickets at 11.32, the joint highest in a league season for Bagenalstown 2 (alongside Ray Stapleton in 2014). Captain Dammar Budhathoki was next with 19 at 15.21, followed by Pardeep Hooda (18 at 15.28) and Robbie O'Neill (15 at 15.73). Predictably, the batting wasn't quite as impressive, with only Shozab Ali Taj breaking the 200 run barrier with 256 runs at 25.60.
Lucan 2 - 3rd - (Pos in league - 92 (2017 - N/A)) - Batting Rating 117 - Bowling Rating 91 - RpO for 5.02 - RpO against 5.29
A mightily impressive debut league season for Lucan 2. There should perhaps be an apology from me - the assumption when looking at Lucan 2's season was that a large number of players must have contributed to both 1sts and 2nds (after all, with Lucan 1 being the 38th best 1st team in the province, we'd expect their 2nds to be something like 33rd - they were 26th). But only one player starred for both 1sts and 2nds - Shaikh Jawaduddin who took 14 wickets at 23.79 for the 2nds. Instead the excellent 92nd position is just down to skill and talent. Sandip Kumar became the 8th Lucan player to make one of our Teams of the Year, with 434 runs at 48.22. Gaurav Kumar also had a fine season with 255 at 28.33 and Anudeep Yalamuru hit 233 at 19.42. The bowling was dominated by Gurdeep Singh who took 25 wickets at 16.24 - the joint third highest amount ever in Division 12. Jatinder Kumar stole the headlines though despite only playing three matches for the team. In early May, Bagenalstown 2 were sauntering towards victory against Lucan, on 40-0 chasing 92 to win. Enter Kumar who took 7-14 (six bowled and one lbw), the best ever bowling in Division 12, as Bagenalstown lost all ten wickets for 21 runs.
Swords 2 - 4th - (Pos in league - 93 (2017 - 93)) - Batting Rating 82 - Bowling Rating 124 - RpO for 4.09 - RpO against 3.65
It's difficult to know where to begin with Swords 2's season. They finished in 93rd, the same as in 2017 which is no shame. The 2nds are the 27th best 2nd team in the country, which is about right with their 1sts being 30th best. But there is an inkling that with three bowlers on our Team of the Year, they should be a bit higher! Two teams - Lucan 2 and AIB 1 had no problems against the Swords bowling - knocking up 261 and 199 respectively. But seven sides (Halverstown 1 (twice), North County 4 (twice), Merrion 7 (twice) and AIB 1) were bundled out for less than 110. And much of that was down to the TotY trio. Alvin Isaac took 16 wickets at 10.06, Basil George took 12 at 10, and Jimson Joseph took 11 at 9.91. Both George and Joseph only played half seasons and perhaps that was an issue, that and the lack of run scorers, with no one getting to 200 runs - Ebin Paiva's 185 at 37 being the highest.
Leinster 5 - 5th - (Pos in league - 94 (2017 - 91)) - Batting Rating 160 - Bowling Rating 90 - RpO for 5.80 - RpO against 5.88
Another team for whom it is very difficult to qualify. On the pitch, they we have them ranked as the third best team in the league. Leinster remain the third best 5th team around. Back in 2011, they were the second best but all that has changed is Clontarf getting stronger at the lower levels. But yet Leinster 5 are playing nearly five divisions below where they were in 2011; off the pitch issues meant they finished in 5th spot in the league (with a walkover given, another match awarded to the opposition, and match against AIB not being played at all). On top of that, there was a lack of individual brilliance, which threatens to make this review quite short! Captain Ashok Yadav led from the front with 14 wickets at 18.93 (and 198 runs at 33) and Muhammad Fawad Rahim made 201 at 40.20. The one exception was Abdul Sattar. Making his debut for Leinster CC in late July, he scored 24 and 13 (before getting 7 and 2 in Division 6 and 34 in Division 3). Back in Division 12 he clicked, scoring 200* against Halverstown and 117 next time out against Lucan. His Division 12 season was 341 runs at an average of 341. The 200 was the seventh double hundred scored in Cricket Leinster's Open Competitions since 2011 - and only the third outside Rush's Kenure ground.
Merrion 7 - 6th (Pos in league - 95 (2017 - 92)) - Batting Rating 78 - Bowling Rating 91 - RpO for 4.25 - RpO against 4.35
A staggering 38 players played for Merrion 7 during their 2018 league season, a factor that could very much have contributed towards their worst league finishing position since 2015. With so many players playing, it was difficult for players to make much of an individual contribution, or for the team to gel and put together winning runs. After playing two matches in the April/May period (and winning both), there were only a couple more victories - away to Leinster in June and away to Halverstown in August. Only four players played in either 12 or 13 of Merrion's 14 matches, and it is those four players who comprise our honour's board. Gurjit Singh was leading run scorer with 250 runs at 19.23, followed by Mark Sandys' 217 at 18.08. With the ball, Velamati Srikanth took 20 wickets at 13.75 and 13 year old Harry Sandys took 12 wickets at 19.75. Merrion 7 continue to be 32 places higher than the only other 7th team at the moment - Leinster.
Halverstown 1 - 7th (Pos in league - 96 (2017 - 96)) - Batting Rating 106 - Bowling Rating 73 - RpO for 4.57 - RpO against 4.83
Division 12 was always going to be a tough proposition for Halverstown 1, and in the end they finished in 96th place in the league - the fifth season in the last six that they have finished 95th or 96th. Remarkably for a team who finished in the relegation places, they ended up with three players on the Team of the Year - two batsmen and a keeper. Three batsmen scored over 200 runs, but none more than 238. And although all three of those had excellent averages, they only played seven, six and four games respectively, Top scorer was Umer Naru with 238 runs at 39.67 followed by fellow Team of the Year recipient, Richard Greene with 228 runs at 38. Clive Wardrop only payed four matches, below the TotY minimum, but scored an excellent 232 at 77.33, scoring two centuries in the space of eight days between June 30 and July 7. Hubert Beaumont became the third Halverstown players on our rep team, leading the wicketkeeper standings with 10 catches and 2 stumpings, the most dismissals by a keeper in a Halverstown 1 league season.
North County 4 - 8th (Pos in league - 97 (2017 - 94)) - Batting Rating 79 - Bowling Rating 86 - RpO for 4.12 - RpO against 5.48
A young North County 4 side had a tough season, only winning matches away to Halverstown and Merrion. Over the last eight seasons, North County 4 have slipped from the 6th to the 9th best 4th team, with Phoenix, YMCA and The Hills all over-taking them in that time, and Adamstown likely to in 2019. Seven times the team were dismissed for under 140, which tells its own tale. Two County stalwarts led the way on the run scoring charts, with Zia Mohyuddin leading with 242 runs at 22 and Foram Mehta next with 202 at 22.44. Much of the problem is playing in North County is that it is one of the best batting strips in the country, and taking wickets can be hard. In the seven matches played in Inch, only once (against Merrion) did County manage to take all ten wickets. Lading wicket taker was Paddy Mann with 13 at 14.08, followed by Mohyuddin with 12 at 23.08, Kiran Patil with 12 at 20.58 and 14 year old John Devane with 11 at 27.91.
The full Division 12 batting averages can be found here, whilst the bowling averages are here