Division 6 review - Part 2

 Division 6 stats

Leading all time run scorer (2011-2015) - Srikanth Boddu (Sandyford) - 1109 runs @ 30.81
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 (2011-2015) - 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 - Sean McCann and Patrick Monks (Rush) - 46 - (2011-2015)

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

Review

Knockharley 1- Champions - (Predicted 3rd) - Batting Rating 113 - Bowling Rating 115 - Overall Rating 228

Knockharley responded to the disappointment of being put in Division 6 for 2015 in the best way possible, by winning the title, and putting to bed any doubts over their right to be in Division 5. It was Knockharley 1's sixth league title, and their first since 2009. Five rained off matches took some of the gloss off the season, but a narrow 6 run defeat of runners up Clontarf in September, confirmed Knockharley as the top team in the league. It all followed an inauspicious start to the season, as Knockharley lost their first two games (to Adamstown and North County), before seven consecutive wins set up that match against Clontarf. In that match, Knockharley struggled against Clontarf's strong bowling attack, with Mark Ingamell top scoring with 38 in a total of only 126. Knockharley's most important match of the season was then won by father and son pair, Ralph and Jack Condie, who took six wickets between them, as Tarf slipped from 70-4 to 120 all out. The batting was ranked as the second strongest in the division, and captain Emmet Craik was the main reason, with 395 runs at the excellent average of 56.43, with the only other 200+ batsmen being Mark Ingamell, who scored 220 at 24.44. He also became the second player to pass the 1000 run mark for Knockharley 1 (after Anthony Bellew), and now has 1108 runs at 19.44. The bowling attack was pretty useful as well, with three bowlers taking more than ten wickets at an average of less than 16 - Jack Condie (18 at 15.56), Tayyab Rashid (13 at 15.92) and Tahir Rasheed (12 at 10.25).

Clontarf 3 - Runners up - (Predicted 1st) - Batting Rating 102 - Bowling Rating 160 - Overall Rating 262

Clontarf's bowling was simply amazing. If their batting had been a tiny bit better, they would have won the league. The quality of the bowling attack can best be seen, from perusing a list of the scores of their opposition during the year. Longford ran up 263 in the first match of the season, before North County and Sandyford were bowled out for 126 and 88 respectively. Adamstown then posted a winning total of 207, before the next six opponents were bowled out for 91, 152, 86, 57, 81 and 126. Strangely enough, that doesn't translate into amazing seasonal bowling figures, possibly down to the team using 32 players in their ten matches (and only Daniel Ashton playing all ten). Ten bowlers took five or more wickets - all of them at an average of less than 16 - but only three took more than ten - Ian Dent, Harry Opperman and Luke Prior. Daniel Ashton (228 at 22.80) and Andrew Delany (243 at 48.60) were the only run scorers of note. Clontarf won't be too worried at the runners up spot, as they return to Division 5 for 2016.

North County 3 - 3rd - (Predicted 2nd) - Batting Rating 97 - Bowling Rating 109 - Overall Rating 206

Not the worst season in the world for North County 3. They came a very solid third place in Division 6 after all. But it was also their lowest league placing in the last five seasons, and they failed in the first attempt to be promoted back to Division 5. Even the results were mixed. They beat champions Knockharley, but lost twice to Clontarf, and had a bad end to the season, losing to bottom placed Railway Union. The batting was the difference between that perceived failure, and the success that promotion would have brought. In the four matches that were lost, County were dismissed for 126, 177 (in Rush, where scores are always a bit higher), 91 and 103. Sean Rooney was the one success story with the batting, scoring 271 runs at 54.20, but he only played six matches for the 3rds, before his talents were required higher up the teams. The bowling was much better - Zahid Imran (15 wickets at 13.60) and Ciaran Mackey (12 at 13.83) were excellent, with Umar Khan (12 at 21.00) and Kashif Qazi (15 at 17.33), just that bit more expensive.

Longford 1 - 4th - (Predicted 6th) - Batting Rating 118 - Bowling Rating 82 - Overall Rating 200

A stop start season for Longford on the pitch. They didn't manage to string successive victories together (the one time they did achieve it, the second victory was taken away in the committee room), but despite that, Longford finished in their highest league position - 44th in the league and the 23rd highest 1st team (overtaking Sandyford this year). Runs were never an issue - only once at home did they fail to reach 200. The bowling wasn't quite as dominant - although only two teams scored over 200 in Longford (Adamstown and Knockharley), Rush, Adamstown and Clontarf all ran up big scores at home. The batting was built around the talents of Shamas Sarfraz (343 runs at 42.88), Danish Javed (338 at 30.73) and Mehar Imran (213 at 26.62), with the bowling centred on Husnain Raza (16 wickets at 17.12), Danish Javed (15 at 24.80), Adnan Sarfraz (11 at 17.55) and Fadi Khan (11 at 27.18). As has been said repeatedly in these reviews - title winning teams will have at least three bowlers who take more than ten wickets at an average of less than 16 - Longford didn't have any. As the club develops the career records of the club develop as well. Shamas Sarfraz was the first to get to the 1000 career run mark, and now has 1116 at 33.82, whilst Danish Javed is just behind with 1076 runs for Longford 1 at 29.08.

Adamstown 1 - 5th - (Predicted 4th) - Batting Rating 106 - Bowling Rating 86 - Overall Rating 192

A fifth straight improvement in the league position of Adamstown 1. It is worth noting that our seasonal preview said that they would need a massive improvement on 2014 just to avoid relegation. Although they missed out on a fourth successive league title, Adamstown must be happy with their position, leaving them in an excellent spot to push on in 2016. The season was massively inconsistent though - excellent wins over Knockharley and Clontarf, but bad, bad defeats to Sandyford and Railway Union. Harpreet Singh dominated the season's batting with 373 runs at 33.91, and with Haseeb Khan also scoring 231 at 25.67, Adamstown had a decent batting line up - third best in the division. Although the bowling was rated as 7th best, it wasn't all that bad (of the six defeats in the league, half were down to the batting). However five teams did manage to clock up over 200 runs, and we need to go no further than our mantra regarding averaging under 16. Jimmy Bansal was the top wicket taker with 15, but at 23.13. Of the five bowlers who took ten wickets or more, only Hanan Maan (with 10 at 13.30) had the necessary low average. To a certain extent, we are nit picking. Adamstown once again exceeded expectations, and once again had their best ever finish in the Leinster leagues.

Rush 2 - 6th (Predicted 5th) - Batting Rating 104 - Bowling Rating 89 - Overall Rating 187

Rush put in another solid season. They're not improving year on year like some clubs - but neither are they falling. 46th place was identical to 2012 and 2013 and only a couple of places below the 44th place of 2011 and 2014. They were the 14th ranked 2nd team in 2011, and have risen to 12th place now. So despite that 6th place, all is not bad down Kenure way. It is difficult to be too harsh on the team, several players performed with bat and ball. If anything it seems that the "other players", didn't really turn up (metaphorically). Dean Brogan had a fantastic season, playing seven matches, scoring 348 runs (at 69.6) and 14 wickets (at 17.29). Eoin Sheehan had a steady season with 214 runs at 21.4. Nicholas Donnelly was leading wicket taker, with 18 wickets at 17.11 (although at 6.31 runs per over!) . Daniel Coffey was handy with the ball, with 15 wickets at 16.67. But the only explanation that we can come up with, as to why Rush finished 6th as opposed to 3rd, is that the next strata of players, had a bit of an off season - only one more batsman scored over 150 runs (David Carthy), only one more bowler took more than three wickets (Stephen Bisset). On the career front, Patrick Monks became the first player to pass the 1000 run mark for Rush 2 on July 19th (he now has 1046 runs at 22.74), whilst Eoin Sheehan became the second player,approximately half an hour later, when he moved onto 40 against Knockharley the same day (Eoin now has 1037 runs at 20.74)

Sandyford 1 - 7th (Predicted 8th) - Batting Rating 80 - Bowling Rating 90 - Overall Rating 170

Sandyford just about exceeded our expectations, and finished a difficult year in 7th place - one higher than we thought. However, Sandyford are still in more or less the same place they were in 2011 (47th as opposed to 46th), and all things considered, that isn't the worst position in the world. Batting performances were poor generally (five times the side was bowled out for 112 or less), but there were enough big totals to make one hope that there will be more in the future. The highlight was the 247-9 against Railway Union in St Columba's College, with Kanwar Arora top scoring with 88. It was his runs that were crucial to Sandyford's season, and although that 88 was his only 50, he managed 241 runs at 21.91 over the season - the only Sandyford player to pass 200. As you'd expect, the bowling was a bit better. Arun Kumar was top with 18 wickets at 20.94; Anto Burke did what Anto always does - lots of wickets and very dependable (17 at 18.18); and Vinay Iqbal had 16 at 16.88.

Railway Union 4 - 8th (Predicted 7th) - Batting Rating 83 - Bowling Rating 96 - Overall Rating 179

2015 always looked like it could be a bridge too far for Railway Union 4. They went in to the season as the second highest 4th team in the province (a position that they still held at the end of the year). But that level of cricket requires a massive strength in depth, and aside from a few star players, it just didn't look like Railway would have enough in the tank. Those star players definitely performed, with the players dropping down from the 3rds all doing very well. Khizer Khan dominated the batting with 331 runs at 41.38, but unfortunately too often he was the only one (only Ciaran Kenny and Muhammad Raza passed 100 runs). He top scored in four of his ten games, and lies 5th in the run scoring aggregates for all competitions since 2010. Not much was learnt from the bowling either. The province's leading wicket taker in that 2011-2015 period, Susheel Kumar, took 12 wickets at 13.75 in his six matches, with Imran Mohammed, taking 11 at 11.91. Susheel became the first player to take 200 wickets in the five seasons for which stats have been collected, and now has 201 wickets (for Railway Union and Leinster) at an average of 16.59, with four 5 wicket hauls, and a best of 7-13 against Castleknock in June 2014.

Division 6 batting averages 2015 (Qualification 100 runs)

Division 6 Bowling averages 2015 (Qualification 6 wickets)