Saturday's Division 2 league program was characterised by glimpses of youthful brilliance which more often or not wasn't quite enough to win the match, with age and experience providing the crucial performances to the winning teams.
With Terenure having the week off, The Hills took the opportunity to return to the top of Division 2 in a hard fought victory in Phoenix Park. Batting first, Phoenix were in a position of strength at 229-4, but when Samuel Anderson was dismssed for a 111 ball 130, the rest of the Phoenix line up fell to the wiles of Manu Kumar, and with the last six wickets tumbling for 13 runs Phoenix only had 242 to defend. When Phoenix reduced the visitors to 45-3, they must have felt they had a chance, but Nicolaas Pretorious produced another gem with 66 from 42 balls.
The match was still in the balance, when Pretorious departed with the score on 166-5, but there is no better man in a tight situation than Naseer Shoukat, and his 62 ball unbeaten 55 ensured The Hills got home with three wickets and fourteen balls to spare. Phoenix stay in 5th place - closer at the moment to relegation than promotion.
Balbriggan's Muhammad Farrukh contributed a match winning 3-24 and 53* as Balbriggan moved up to 3rd place in Division 2, in touching distance of Terenure in 2nd place. The headlines were grabbed by 15 year old Harry Tector who had a fine match in a losing cause. Tector was the sole YMCA batsman to compile an innings of any substance, with 74 from the teams's total of 1673 all out. Duane Harper also took three wickets - for 31 runs, with the next highest YM score being Callum Donnelly's 15.
Tector then bowled an excellent spell of 0-23 from ten overs, and at 117-6 (with Craig Meier taking 3-41) Balbriggan were stuttering. Farrukh was then joined by Tariq Faheem, and the two knocked off the remaining 47 runs with nine overs to spare.
Leinster's season took a nasty turn for the worse, as they lost at home to a dominant Rush side. Hugh McDonnell returned to run scoring ways, passing 20 for the first time in 11 innings, before going on to his third senior hundred (and following it up with another one for Leinster 2nds the following day). But from 187-4, Leinster couldn't capitalise, and collapsed to 211 all out, as Lynal Jansen took 5-27, his best ever figures for Rush in Leinster Senior Cricket, and the first time he has taken five wickets.
From there, the match was still in the balance, but the Rush openers quickly put the result beyond doubt. 16 year old Stephen Doheny continued his impressive form so far this season, with a 76 ball 85, and with Jansen scoring 48, the pair added 110, before 16 year old Dean Brogan, and a slightly older Shahid Iqbal added 67 for the third wicket to see Rush home with just under 15 overs to spare. Rush move into fourth place, with Leinster in 7th place, and seriously in need of wins.
Highest Batting average in Division 2 - (current qualification - 150 runs)
Pretorious stays well ahead after his 66 for The Hills. Anderson moves from fourth to second. Max Sorensen is the leading contender as the highest Irish qualified batsman, and Harry Tector moves into seventh place.
| # | Name | Club | Inn | NO | HS | 50 | 100 | 4s | 6s | Dks | SR | Runs | Avg |
| 1 | N Pretorius * | Hills | 6 | 2 | 106 | 1 | 1 | 49 | 2 | - | 125.88 | 287 | 71.75 |
| 2 | S Anderson * | Phoe | 7 | - | 130 | 3 | 1 | 51 | 3 | 1 | 103.36 | 369 | 52.71 |
| 3 | M Sorensen | Hills | 3 | - | 98 | 1 | - | 11 | 9 | - | 155.56 | 154 | 51.33 |
| 4 | L Jansen * | Rush | 6 | 1 | 110 | - | 1 | 33 | 1 | - | 92.41 | 256 | 51.20 |
| 5 | A Taylor * | Phoe | 7 | - | 82 | 2 | - | 27 | 2 | - | 68.15 | 276 | 39.43 |
| 6 | B Speake * | Ter | 8 | 1 | 70* | 3 | - | 29 | 5 | - | 63.87 | 274 | 39.14 |
| 7 | Harry Tector | YMCA | 6 | 1 | 74 | 2 | - | 17 | 1 | - | 58.15 | 179 | 35.80 |
| 8 | Masud Ahmed | Phoe | 7 | - | 76 | 2 | - | 33 | 3 | - | 99.53 | 214 | 30.57 |
| 9 | T Ritchie * | Lein | 7 | 1 | 93* | 1 | - | 20 | 3 | - | 66.54 | 181 | 30.17 |
| 10 | W von Behr * | Trinity | 6 | - | 89 | 1 | - | 10 | 1 | 1 | 50.58 | 174 | 29.00 |
| 11 | S Ramnathpur * | Ter | 8 | 2 | 51* | 1 | - | 17 | - | 1 | 72.22 | 169 | 28.17 |
| 12 | H Mac Donnell | Lein | 6 | - | 102 | - | 1 | 15 | - | 2 | 87.23 | 164 | 27.33 |
| 13 | M Farrukh * | Balb | 7 | 1 | 53* | 1 | - | 24 | - | 1 | 62.75 | 160 | 26.67 |
| 14 | A Dunlop | YMCA | 8 | - | 37 | - | - | 13 | 4 | - | 61.93 | 166 | 20.75 |
Lowest Bowling average in Division 2 - (Current Qualification - 10 wkts)
Qualification moves up once more - now standing at ten wickets. John Mooney leads, although he will not be playing any cricket for Balbriggan until Ireland's WCT20 Qualifying tournament is over. Roger Kear took 1-21 for Balbriggan, and although his average slightly slips, he remains in second. Lynal Jansen is the big mover - his career best figures propelling him to third.
| # | Name | Club | Overs | Maid | RunsA | BBowl | 5I | Econ | SR | Wkt | Avg |
| 1 | John Mooney | Balb | 30 | 6 | 91 | 3-5 | - | 3.02 | 15.08 | 12 | 7.58 |
| 2 | R Kear | Balb | 32 | - | 119 | 5-43 | 1 | 3.72 | 14.77 | 13 | 9.15 |
| 3 | L Jansen * | Rush | 39 | 4 | 132 | 5-27 | 1 | 3.38 | 18.00 | 13 | 10.15 |
| 4 | M Lunson | Phoe | 36 | 6 | 162 | 4-18 | - | 4.42 | 15.71 | 14 | 11.57 |
| 5 | K Brennan | Ter | 68 | 15 | 232 | 4-25 | - | 3.39 | 21.63 | 19 | 12.21 |
| 6 | Padraic Flanagan | YMCA/Trinity | 38 | 4 | 138 | 3-32 | - | 3.63 | 20.73 | 11 | 12.55 |
| 7 | D Carolus * | Hills | 43 | 3 | 154 | 3-10 | - | 3.58 | 25.80 | 10 | 15.40 |
| 8 | J Carroll | Lein | 45 | 2 | 201 | 5-22 | 1 | 4.42 | 21.00 | 13 | 15.46 |
| 9 | M Farrukh * | Balb | 50 | 6 | 166 | 3-24 | - | 3.32 | 30.00 | 10 | 16.60 |
| 10 | Harry Tector | YMCA | 49 | 4 | 186 | 4-26 | - | 3.74 | 27.09 | 11 | 16.91 |
| 11 | James Smith | Ter | 54 | 4 | 301 | 4-42 | - | 5.57 | 19.06 | 17 | 17.71 |
| 12 | S Ramnathpur * | Ter | 63 | 8 | 218 | 3-28 | - | 3.46 | 34.36 | 11 | 19.82 |
Most Catches by a fielder in Division 2
Little change here, although Harry Tector moves up to joint third with another catch for YMCA 2.
| # | Name | Club | Mts | Ct |
| 1 | B Speake * | Ter | 8 | 7 |
| 2 | C McLoughlin-Gavin | Hills | 6 | 6 |
| 3 | Diarmuid Lynch | Ter | 6 | 6 |
| 4 | M Farrukh * | Balb | 7 | 5 |
| 5 | Harry Tector | YMCA | 6 | 5 |
| 6 | S Ramnathpur * | Ter | 8 | 5 |
| 7 | D McDonough-Kinkade | YMCA | 4 | 4 |
| 8 | Tomas Rooney Murphy | Hills | 6 | 4 |
| 9 | P Martin | Balb | 6 | 4 |
| 10 | B White | Phoe | 5 | 4 |
Most dismissals by a wicket keeper in Division 2
YMCA's Sam Murphy, today named in the Ireland Schools team extends his lead to four dismissals, after grabbing two more on Saturday.
| # | Name | Club | Mts | Ct | St | Dismissals |
| 1 | Sam Murphy | YMCA | 7 | 11 | 3 | 14 |
| 2 | Richard Forrest | Lein | 7 | 9 | 1 | 10 |
| 3 | N Pretorius * | Hills | 5 | 7 | 3 | 10 |
| 4 | A Taylor * | Phoe | 7 | 7 | 3 | 10 |
| 5 | M Cotter | Ter | 8 | 8 | 1 | 9 |
| 6 | James King | Rush | 6 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
Leading allrounder in Division 2 - (Qualification 75 runs and 5 wickets/dismissals. 1 pt for each run, 20 pts for each wkt, ctch or stmp)
After last week's highlighting of the excellent start to the season for Terenure's Ken Brennan, Cricket Leinster's chief statistician was in touch with me to remind me that as the season progresses, a qualification is brought in to the all rounders chart to make sure that those contending our genuine allrounders.
The top five are dominated with non-Irish qualified players, with the leader being Phoenix's Samuel Anderson. But the top pair of those who are Irish qualified are the YM brace of Harry Tector and Sam Murphy - with a combined age of 31
| # | Name | Club | Mts | Runs | Wkt | Ct | St | Points |
| 1 | S Anderson * | Phoe | 7 | 369 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 549 |
| 2 | L Jansen * | Rush | 6 | 256 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 516 |
| 3 | N Pretorius * | Hills | 6 | 287 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 487 |
| 4 | A Taylor * | Phoe | 7 | 276 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 476 |
| 5 | B Speake * | Ter | 8 | 274 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 414 |
| 6 | Harry Tector | YMCA | 6 | 179 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 399 |
| 7 | Sam Murphy | YMCA | 7 | 115 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 395 |
| 8 | J Carroll | Lein | 7 | 134 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 394 |
| 9 | S Ramnathpur * | Ter | 8 | 169 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 389 |
| 10 | E Ahmed | Balb | 7 | 145 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 365 |
| 11 | M Farrukh * | Balb | 7 | 160 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 360 |