Division 6 stats
Leading all time run scorer (2011-2016) - Shamas Sarfraz (Longford) - 1290 runs @ 33.95
Most runs in a Division 6 season - Khizer Khan (Railway Union) - 479 runs (2013)
Highest score - Imran Mohammed - 160 - Railway Union 4 vs Longford 1 - Newtownforbes - 22 April 2014
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2016) - Anthony Burke (Sandyford) - 78 wkts @ 14.91
Most wickets in a Division 6 season - Aaron Joseph (Phoenix) - 31 wkts (2014)
Best bowling - Susheel Kumar - 7-13 - Railway Union 4 vs Castleknock 1 - Castleknock College - 14 June 2014
Most matches - Patrick Monks (Rush) - 59 - (2011-2016)
Highest team score - 345-8 - Railway Union 4 vs Sandyford 1 - Park Avenue - 14 June 2015
Lowest team score - 33 all out - Knockharley 1 vs Longford 1 - Knockharley - 14 Sept 2014
Team of the Year (in batting order) - Haseeb Khan (Adamstown), Gerard O'Brien (Railway Union), Jared Ventner (Rush), Hashir Sultan (Adamstown), Muhammed Nurulain Boda (Castleknock), David Carthy (Rush), Susheel Kumar (Rallway Union), Shamas Sarfraz (Longford), Safwan Jaffary (Castleknock, wicketkeeper), Adnan Mateen Syed (Castleknock), Ramesh Neppali (Merrion)
Review
Runs per wicket for all teams - 20.06 Runs per over for all teams - 4.83
Longford 1 - Champions - (Predicted 5th) - Batting Rating 119 - Bowling Rating 112 - RpO for 5.39 - RpO against 4.41
For the first time since 1952, the first team from Longford put their name on a Cricket Leinster competition. A previous incarnation of the club, County Longford won the Junior Cup then, and it has been a long wait for a repeat. The club's second string gave a little taster with Division 11 back in 2014, but this year's title was a proud day for the club. It was pretty much a three way tussle for the crown, with Rush 2 and Adamstown 1 joining the fray. The matches against those two opponents proved to be the crucial ones, and with two big wins over Rush, there could be no complaints from that part of the world. The two matches against Adamstown were shared, but the crucial game was on July 23, when 94 from Adnan Sarfraz and a rapid 74 from Shamas Sarfraz set up a formidable (and winning) total of 314-8. As can be gauged from that match, batting was Longford's strong point. Three players topped 200 runs. Longford 1's all time leading run scorer led the way - Shamas Sarfraz with 329 at 35.36; Fadi Khan scored 258 at 25.8 and Ashir Javed 231 at 28.88. The bowling attack did their job - which sounds like feint praise. No one took 5 wickets in an innings, but there were plenty of bowlers who put their hand up each week. No one took more than 15 wickets with Danish Javed taking them at 14.07 and Mehar Imran getting them at 20.07. So onwards and upwards for Longford - Division 5 awaits.
Adamstown 1 - Runners up - (Predicted 3rd) - Batting Rating 129 - Bowling Rating 104 - RpO for 5.34 - RpO against 4.45
There will be a tingling of regret in Adamstown 1, as they narrowly failed to win their third league title in four seasons. But their can be no real complaints as once again Adamstown reached their highest point in the league ladder - 42nd. They remain the 24th best first team in the province, but will be moving up that particular list over the coming years. The title was lost in July, when Adamstown lost their only three games of the season. Rain played its part as well (as it did for most teams in 2016!) with their last two games against Rush and Castleknock being rained off. Adamstown were actually rated higher then Longford, having a much stronger batting line up, making up for a weaker bowling attack. Jimmy Bansal was the undoubted start of the side, leading the run scoring and wicket taking tallies. With the bat he had, 309 at 34.33 and with the ball he had 16 wickets at 17.94. He was the only player to score 300 runs and take 15 wickets in Division 6. Bansal is now 9th on the all time run scoring charts for Adamstown 1 ad third on the wicket taking charts. Haseeb Khan was the only other player to pass 200 runs (224 at 33.63 - he became the 5th player to score 1000 runs for Adamstown 1, and now has 1105 runs at 33.48), whilst with the ball Bansal's supporters were Ali Elahi (11 at 23) and Aman Yadav (11 at 12.91) who remains at second place on the Adamstown 1 wicket taking list - behind Varun Walia.
Rush 2 - 3rd - (Predicted 4th) - Batting Rating 116 - Bowling Rating 110 - RpO for 45.59 - RpO against 4.94
Heartache for Rush 2 who narrowly missed out on promotion, but whose heart will be somewhat lifted by finishing in their highest league position of the last six seasons (43rd) and that they overtook Terenure 2 to be the 11th highest 2nd team. Back in 2011, they were also behind Laois 2 and Civil Service 2, so there have been advances. As with all sides who narrowly miss out, it is tempting to look back on what may have been. In reality though, there were not too many losses that Rush would look back on and wish that a catch had been held, or an extra single taken. There were two defeats to Longford, a big 112 run loss to Castleknock (in which the Rush batting just didn't show up) and a narrow to wicket defeat to Merrion in the last game of the season, a match which always looked as if it was going the way of Merrion. So no complaints, and Rush will be in a good position to get that elusive promotion next year. Four batsmen passed 200 runs, with South African exchange student Jared Ventner topping the list with 217 runs at a useful 54.25. Eoin Sheehan was top tun scorer with 271 at 20.85, Patrick Monks made 246 at 18.92 and David Carthy made 208 at 34.67. The bowling was very much led by the partnership of Daniel Coffey (22 wickets at 17.45) and Nicholas Donnelly (19 at 17.32). Coffey's 22 wickets was the highest in a Rush 2 league season, beating Sean McCann's 2013 mark of 20.
Railway Union 3 - 4th - (Predicted 1st) - Batting Rating 114 - Bowling Rating 114 - RpO for 4.58 - RpO against 4.53
Our prediction for first place, and even now it is difficult to work out where it all went wrong, but there is no getting away from the fact that it was Railway Union 3's worst finish in the last six seasons. Thirty two players being used in the nine completed games gives a good clue as to the reasons behind the relative failure. Teams who struggle to put out the same team week after week, rarely achieve. It all started off very well, with the first four matches of the season being won - including two comprehensive wins over North County, and a solid three wicket win over Adamstown. When Alex Stiles hit 146* to set up a 112 run win over Castleknock, everything was looking good. Unfortunately, that was as good as the season got, and Railway's next five totals were 153, 161, 105, 130-6 (to beat Terenure) and 127. Not disastrous, but not good enough to get promotion at this level. From that carnage, Ger O'Brien was the only batsman to get more than Alex Stiles' 163 runs - O'Brien scored 269 at 53.80. The bowling was a similar story, with Eoghan Grehan doing ok with 10 wickets at 23.9 but one player, Susheel Kumar, far ahead of the others with 15 wickets at 11. Kumar remains the leading wicket taker in all Open Competitions since 2011 with 241 wickets at 15.31 (and is also Railway's leading wicket taker in the same period, with 163 wickets at 15.24)
Castleknock 1 - 5th - (Predicted 7th) - Batting Rating 84 - Bowling Rating 107 - RpO for 4.12 - RpO against 5.18
The positives were that Castleknock out performed our prediction of 7th place and avoided relegation. There were fantastic wins over Longford and Rush, and obviously the team is capable of much more. Astoundingly, there were two very, very distinct parts to the season. On July 17, Castleknock stood bottom of the league with six straight losses. From that point on, it was a complete reversal, and they won the last five games of the year. But there has been a certain amount of stagnation in the club - for example in 2012, Castleknock 1 were the 24th ranked 1st team, and they have now dropped to 25. Amongst that up and down season, it is perhaps understandable that individual performances were thin on the ground. Only Kushal Narang passed 200 runs with 217 at 24.11. The bowling attack was much better though. Afkar Ahmed (14 wickets at 17.21) and Usman Arshad (14 at 17.71) were distinctly useful, but they were eclipsed by Muhammed Nurulain Boda who took a brilliant 24 wickets at 11.88. It was the most wickets taken by a bowler this season in Division 6.
Merrion 5 - 6th (Predicted 8th) - Batting Rating 89 - Bowling Rating 94 - RpO for 4.28 - RpO against 4.49
In what was always going to be a very difficult year, a Merrion team once again out-performed expectations, avoiding relegation, and finishing in their highest ever league spot - 46th, as opposed to the previous Merrion 5 best of 49th in 2011 and 2015. They had to do it the hard way as well, after losing two matches to 7th place North County , and once to bottom placed Terenure. Two wins over Railway Union, and the last gasp win over Rush (see above) were the crucial wins - although in the end there was a healthy gap between Merrion and seventh placed North County. As may be expected, Merrion 5 udes a massive 40 players during the season - and also not surprisingly, none of them managed to total 200 runs. Sainath Reddy was best with 173 runs at 28.83. According to our ratings, the bowling was a touch stronger. Vamsi Krishna took 15 wickets at 19.3, Vishal Singh took 12 at 15.58, and a third bowler also got past ten wickets, Ramesh Neppalli. Neppalli started the season by opening the bowling for Dublin University 1, his very first delivery being a no ball as he slipped on delivery, falling on to all three stumps. His season finished with a very useful 3-12 as Merrion won that crucial game in Rush.
North County 3 - 7th (Predicted 2nd) - Batting Rating 101 - Bowling Rating 82 - RpO for 5.34 - RpO against 5.08
Something of a disaster for North County 3. Fifteen years ago, County were the third team in the province - the team that other 3rds looked up to. From 2011-2013, they finished 37th in the league - still the 7th best third team around. Since 2013, there has been a slide, and although it looked like a blip, this year's probably relegation spells trouble. They have fallen to 47th, and have dropped to 9th amongst third teams. There was a narrow win over Castleknock, a win over Terenure and a quite brilliant 159 run thumping of Merrion, which makes the rest of the season a bit harder to fathom. The batting did ok, but although seven passed 100 runs, only Safdar Ali went on to greater things, scoring 209 at 26.12. The bowling was however rated as the worst in the division, and although there were a few good performances (such as Zia Mohyuddin's 5-22 against Merrion), only Kashif Qazi got to double figures in the wickets column with 12 at 20. On a positive note, Irfan Arshad was the first North County 3 player to breach the 1000 run barrier, his 249 runs this year sending him to 1133 runs at 18.88.
Terenure 2 - 8th (Predicted 6th) - Batting Rating 71 - Bowling Rating 83 - RpO for 4.15 - RpO against 5.67
A tough year for Terenure 2, who slumped to their lowest league position in the last six seasons - albeit only four places below where they were in 2012. Wins over Merrion and North County provided the bright spots, but there was a good bit of gloom to darken the spirits. Batting was very definitely an issue - the team were bowled out for 113 or less on six occasions (although only one of those six was at home). Michael Cotter was supreme in scoring 258 runs at 32.25, but there wasn't too much support, with Donal Lynch next with 167 at 16.7. The bowling ranked a little better, and in fact we ranked it better than North County's. That was however down almost entirely to one player - Philip Rout taking 22 wickets at 17.55. It was the most wicket for Terenure 2 in a league season (in the last six seasons), beating Benn Hoey's 2012 mark of 19.
The full Division 6 batting averages can be found here, whilst the bowling averages are here.