Division 14 review - Part 2

Division 14 stats

Leading all time run scorer (2011-2015) - Adam Gilbride (Clontarf) - 839 runs @ 24.68
Most runs in a Division 14 season - Colm Reilly (Balbriggan) - 510 runs (2013)
Highest score - Jack Quinlan - 168 - Merrion 7 vs Wicklow County 2 - Anglesea Road - 6 July 2013
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2015) - Tomas Mount (Mullingar) - 64 wkts @ 11.09
Most wickets in a Division 14 season - Tomas Mount - 28 wkts (2013)
Best bowling - Peter Crosse - 8-9 - Wicklow County 2 vs Mullingar 3 - Aravon School - 3 Sept 2012
Most matches - Frank Lonergan (Wicklow County) - 44 - (2012-2015)

Highest team score - 321-5 - Merrion 7 vs Wicklow County 2 - Anglesea Road - 6 July 2013
Lowest team score - 21 all out - Sandyford 3 vs Mullingar 3 - St Finian's College - 29 Aug 2015

Review

Leinster 7 - Champions - (Predicted 3rd) - Batting Rating 128 - Bowling Rating 103 - Overall Rating 230

Leinster 7 won their first league title since 1999, winning some hard fought matches, including the one that really mattered - against runners up Bagenalstown. Despite our ratings ranking them as only the third best team in the division, they lost only once all season, and put together seven successful chases (out of eight), all those seven being won by a margin of between seven and three wickets. Five players topped 100 runs, but only Ibrahim Rafique got past 200, with 292 at 36.70. The bowling presented a simliar tale, with four passing ten wickets - Justin Cramp being the top wicket taker in the division with 21 at 15.00. Six players played in at least nine matches, and it is that consistency that seems to have taken Leinster to the title - the six were Bob and Justin Cramp, Trevor Dunne, Rafique, Mohammad Shahzad and Muhammad Usman

Bagenalstown 2 - Runners up - (Predicted 2nd) - Batting Rating 157 - Bowling Rating 172 - Overall Rating 329

Bagenalstown's displays during the season should have meant that they romped to a league title. That they didn't is largely down to the loss against Leinster 7. In that match on July 4, Bagenalstown ran up 181-7, the highest score any team from Bagenalttown managed all season. That should have been enough, but a valiant team effort from Leinster saw a shock 5 wicket loss for the home side. Crucially, it was star bowler, Ray Stapleton's worst bowling figures of the year. The rest of their season was frankly stunning. After losing the first match of the season to Castleknock 3 by only 8 runs, they had four 8 wicket wins, two 9 wicket wins, and a 102 run win. The bowling was slightly stronger than the batting - but only just. Richard Duffin made a welcome return to league cricket, scoring 212 runs at a healthy 106. Even better was Shane O'Neill ,who finished with the distinctly healthy average of 272, after only being dismissed once in six innings. Four bowlers took more than ten wickets, the "worst" at an average of 10.08, the best Stapeleton's 17 at 6.65.

Knockharley 3 - 3rd - (Predicted 1st) - Batting Rating 92 - Bowling Rating 143 - Overall Rating 235

As our seasonal preview said, Knockharley 3 have been remarkably consistent over recent years, finishing between 105th and 108th every season since 2011. That consistency still holds, with 3rd place being 107th in the ladder. That they didn't push on and finish in the top two places is something of a disappointment though. The bowling attack worked reasonably well, with Mahbabur Rahman leading the way with 15 wickets at 12.33. In the six matches Knockharley won, they restricted the opposition to 59ao, 106ao, 69ao, 107-7, 60ao and 149-9. But the batting unit performed below the average expected throughout the league - only Robert Shekleton passed 200 runs at 27.88.

Adamstown 4 - 4th - (Predicted 5th) - Batting Rating 135 - Bowling Rating 78 - Overall Rating 213

Another team who were slightly imbalanced. No problems at all with the Adamstown batting, but the bowling attack was like a spoon through butter, only bowling out two teams all year. The batting was a different story though with Rozeen Ahmed scoring an impressive 393 runs at 35.73 and Khurram Mughal adding 285 at 47.50. But it wasn't the end of the world, and Adamstown performed better than we thought they would - 4th instead of the predicted 5th. It's still early days for Adamstown's 4th team, and over the two seasons of their existence, they have won 12 and lost 12.

Wicklow County 2- 5th - (Predicted 8th) - Batting Rating 104 - Bowling Rating 89 - Overall Rating 194

The team's best performance since 2012, and a big improvement on our prediction of 8th. It as looking a little dicey as the season approached the end of June, with four losses on the pitch (whilst they were also given a walkover). However, they returned to Bray on June 27, winning their next four matches by the impressive margins of 123 runs, 146 runs, 7 wickets and 7 wickets. The batting was dominated by the trio of Trevor Koen (349 runs at 38.78), Gaurav Patwal (334 at 37.11) and Thejas Sreedharan (221 at 31.57). The bowling wasn't as strong, and despite four bowlers taking 10 wickets, no one was better than Koen's 12 at 16.58.

Castleknock 3 - 6th (Predicted 4th) - Batting Rating 69 - Bowling Rating 79 - Overall Rating 148

Ranked as the worst team in the division on their performance with bat and ball, Castleknock hustled well, winning matches against favoured opposition in Bagenalstown and Knockharley. The rest of the season was less impressive though, and coupled with having matches against their fellow relegation strugglers rained off, the season was a little under cooked. As is hinted at by their ratings above, the batting wasn't great (Pardeep Singh led with 132 runs at 22), and the bowling worse - no one took 10 wickets.

Mullingar 3 - 7th (Predicted 7th) - Batting Rating 65 - Bowling Rating 91 - Overall Rating 156

The headline will say that Mullingar finished 7th and in the relegation places. Dig a little deeper though, and it is not all that bad. 111th in the league is an improvement of two places on last year, and is only one place below their best ever finish. Tomas Mount has traditionally been the dominant bowler for Mullingar in Division 14 (he is the leading all time wicket taker in the division), but having moved onto greater things, it was up to others to fill the Mount sized hole. Robert Delaney was the leading wicket taker with 12 at 17.58 and Conor Kelly took 11 at 21.27. The batting struggled though - incredibly no one passed 100 runs, and the season's highest total was 144-6

Sandyford 3 - 8th (Predicted 6th) - Batting Rating 80 - Bowling Rating 74 - Overall Rating 154

A tough year for Sandyford reached its nadir when they were dismissed for 21 against fellow stugglers Mullingar - the lowest total in the five seasons of Division 14. The one victory was an impressive win over Knockharley, the basis being Shyam Bharti's 62 ball 70 and Arun Nambisan's 6-24 (the best bowling for the team this year). Stephen Langton was the top run scorer with 156 runs at 39, with no one taking more than Langton and Varatharaj Murthy's nine

Division 14 batting averages 2015 (Qualification 100 runs)

Division 14 Bowling averages 2015 (Qualification 6 wickets)