Division 7 review - Part 2

 Division 7 stats

Leading all time run scorer (2011-2015) - Eugene Brennan (Wexford Wanderers) - 945 runs @ 28.64
Most runs in a Division 7 season - Nathan Beuck (Greystones) - 495 runs (2013)
Highest score - Sanjay Saharan - 196 - Merrion 5 vs Malahide 4 - Bird Avenue - 6 June 2011
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2015) - Alan Murphy (Wexford Wanderers) - 75 wkts @ 15.05
Most wickets in a Division 7 season - Susheel Kumar (Railway Union) - 27 wkts (2012)
Best bowling - Nabeel Anjum - 7-49 - Wexford Wanderers 1 vs Clontarf 4 - Castle Avenue - 24 May 2015
Most matches - Alan Murphy (Wexford Wanderers) - 54 - (2011-2015)

Highest team score - 425-3 - Greystones 1 vs Balbriggan 2 - Marlay Park - 14 Sept 2013
Lowest team score - 37 all out - Wexford Wanderers 1 vs Castleknock 1 - Wexford RFC - 29 Aug 2015

Review

Merrion 5- Champions - (Predicted 6th) - Batting Rating 141 - Bowling Rating 117 - Overall Rating 258

Merrion picked up their fifth league title, their first since 2011, and the third time they have won the seventh tier league in Leinster cricket. So far so good, but it is tempting to wonder how this team is so much better than any other fifth team in the province (Railway Union and Leinster are the next best. 27 and 28 places respectively down the league ladder). It is tempting to look at team selections, and wonder whether starring lists could be an explanation. Sure, Merrion 5 had four players (Dhiman, Ramasetty, Reddy Yelmati and Siddireddy) who filled substantial roles in the league campaigns of both 4ths and 5ths. But that is pretty normal, and the other teams in the top half of Division 7, Pembroke 4 and Dundrum both had a similar record in this regard. It may be tempting to think that there are players dominating at this level, who perhaps just want to play with mates. But that doesn't stand up to inspection either. Thirty players played for Merrion 5 over the season, but only one of them scored over 200 runs (Prashanth Siddireddy with 245 at 40.83) and the top wicket taker was Vamsi Krishna with 12 at 15.67. The highest run scorer over the previous four seasons, Chandra Aramalla, had moved up to captain the 4ths, so the 5ths had to find new sources of runs - so that is what they did. Although only Siddireddy passed 200 runs, nine passed 100 runs. The one remarkable stat from Merrion's season is that in their nine league victories, eight different players top scored, and seven different bowlers had the best figures. The fact is that Merrion just have more good cricketers than anyone else!

Pembroke 4 - Runners up - (Predicted 8th) - Batting Rating 116 - Bowling Rating 91 - Overall Rating 207

A stunning performance from Pembroke 4, who won their last four matches of the season, to squeeze into second place, and their highest league position in the last five years. It was something of a surprising year for Pembroke (we predicted them coming bottom!), but some solid performances propelled them up the table. With the bat, Paddy Halpin (210 at 23.33) and Jeremy Dunleavy (200 at 25.00) had decent seasons, but perhaps no better than you'd come to expect from them. The impetus came from Sanil Gupta, who scored 217 at 36.17, a massive improvement on 2014's 118 at 13.11. It was a similar story with the ball, where Justin Doherty (17 wickets at 20.12) and Stephen Roughan (18 wickets at 13.72) had good seasons, but of a similar level to 2014. The added oomph came from Joe Prendergast who beefed up the Pembroke attack with 14 wickets at 23.79. League success can be a fickle quality to pin down though - if it wasn't for Justin Doherty's batting, Pembroke would have been mid table. At the end of July, Pembroke were chasing 129 to win in North Kildare, and had slumped to 115-9. Enter Doherty, who hit 9* of the required 14, to see Pembroke home by the narrowest of margins - and into second place.

Castleknock 1 - 3rd - (Predicted 2nd) - Batting Rating 86 - Bowling Rating 123 - Overall Rating 209

A slightly disappointing season for Castleknock, who would have been aiming for a return to Division 6. On the face of it, the batting seems to have been the problem, with a spate of low scores. Leading on from that, it would be easy to blame the low scores on Castleknock's Porterstown home. Easy, but completely wrong! The three lowest scoring encounters for Castleknock this year were in Wexford (Castleknock 50ao, Wexford 37ao), Sydney Parade (Pembroke 83 ao, Castleknock 87-6) and Castle Avenue (Clontarf 91-9, Castleknock 91ao - match tied). So Castleknock's travails with the bats come from elsewhere but it was a definite issue, as only Kushal Narang passed 200 runs - 288 at 41.14. The bowling was a completely different kettle of fish, and one of the most impressive sets of stats we have come across so far. Nadeem Syed was the leading wicket taker in the division with 25 wickets at 11.04, with Muhammed Nurulain Boda not too far behind with 20 at 9.60. But the rest of the attack were pretty awesome as well - Nabeegh Qureshi had 15 at 12.67 and Shazaib Ahmad took 10 at 14.50.

Dundrum 2 - 4th - (Predicted 5th) - Batting Rating 108 - Bowling Rating 97 - Overall Rating 205

Dundrum 2 finished in their highest ever league position, and improved on our predicted finish of fourth. They had a large helping of batsmen and bowlers having good seasons (four of each passed our 200 run/10 wicket threshold), but yet somehow, it should have been better. Three losses in the last four matches undoubtedly cost Dundrum second place, and with two of those losses being by sizable margins, there is no one else to blame. Jinto Mathew has been a giant for Dundrum 2 in the last five seasons, becoming one of 53 players to have completed the 1000 run/100 wicket double in all Open Competitions, and only the second from Dundrum (after Renjith Nair). Mathew had another solid all round season with 287 runs at 26.09 and 23 wickets at 14.87. Nithin Thambi was the only one of the 200+ run brigade to average over 30 (259 at 32.38) with the other two high scoring batsmen being Joji Mathew (235 at 26.11) and Srikanth Boddu (201 at 28.71). Binson Thambi had his most productive season with the ball, with 18 wickets at 14.86; the irrepressible Alex Mathews (one of only seven batsmen to have 3000 Open Comps runs) chipped in with 14 wickets at 10.07; and Sanjoe Babu had 12 at 24.67. Dundrum 2 have moved ahead of Laois 2 and North Kildare 2 to be the 13th highest ranked second team.

North Kildare 2 - 5th - (Predicted 1st) - Batting Rating 108 - Bowling Rating 93 - Overall Rating 201

A disappointing for North Kildare 2 (at least from this point of view). They were predicted to come top, but instead slumped to their lowest position in the league since our records began in 2010. Trying to pin down the reasons behind that slump are a bit harder. Only Merrion and Pembroke had higher ranked batting, so we can assume that that wasn't really where the problems lay. Ian Walshe (319 at 35.44), Mark Topping (258 at 32.25) and Sean Dalton (202 at 33.67) all had decent seasons. Dalton's record probably encapsulates the problem though - two brilliant hundreds for the 2nd all season (another one in the Middle 2 Cup), but no other score higher than 26. In the five league matches that were lost, there was not a single North Kildare 50. To put it simply, if a North Kildare batsman scored a 50, they won. The bowling was nearly very good. Andrew Chase had 16 wickets at 13.12 and Amardeep Singh 16 at 12.00 - as well as Gulab Singh and Mark Topping also passing the 10 wicket mark (albeit at a much higher average). But Chase only played in six of the league games, and Amardeep in eight.

Wexford Wanderers 1 - 6th (Predicted 7th) - Batting Rating 69 - Bowling Rating 118 - Overall Rating 187

A season pretty much as expected from Wexford - with the added bonus of avoiding 7th spot and the worries of relegation that that brings. Wexford have finished between 51st and 55th in the league every year since 2010, so this year's 54th was pretty much as expected. Wexford's home ground can lead to testing conditions for batsmen, and as a result, only Sharjeel Shaikh passed 200 (at 21.20). In fact only one other player, Alan Murphy, even passed 100 runs. As a side note, on July 5th, Eugene Brennan became the first Wexford Wanderers batsman to pass 1000 Open Competitions runs (finishing the season with 1063 at 28.73), before Sharjeep Shaikh became the second Wexford player to break that barrier on September 12th (and he now has 1027 at 25.67). As would be expected, the bowling was much stronger, with the attack coming out as the second best ranked team in the division. Alan Murphy led the way with 15 at 12.20, Shaikh added to his runs with 13 wickets at 13.46, and Nabeel Anjum had the remarkable return of 12 wickets at 7.67.

Laois 2 - 7th (Predicted 4th) - Batting Rating 108 - Bowling Rating 84 - Overall Rating 192

Laois 2 experienced their most disappointing league season in many years, although that could be put down to the over achievement of previous teams rather than under achievement of the 2015 vintage. Only once did the normally free scoring team pass 200 (271-8 at home to North Kildare), and although there were comparatively few collapses (only once were they dismissed for under 140), the lack of big scores hurt them. That lack of runs is transferred to the individual batting stats, where not a single player passed 200 runs for the league season. The bowling presents another quandary - although an incredible seven players took ten or more wickets, there weren't any of the type that wins leagues - the 20 wickets at 12 type of bowler. Mohammed Sheraz took 16 wickets, but at 23.25; Umar Saud took 13, but at 22.77. You get the picture.

Clontarf 4 - 8th (Predicted 3rd) - Batting Rating 72 - Bowling Rating 88 - Overall Rating 160

The wheels fell off for Clontarf 4 this year, who after four seasons of steadily rising up the league ladder, suffered a reverse, and a relegation back to Division 8. When looking for a reason as to where it all went wrong, it is best to have a look back to 2014. Tarf's successful campaign last year was based on the combined talents of Sean Currie and Andrew Vincent with the bat (or bat and ball in Vincent's case) and Ehsan Ali with the ball. Whilst Ali again had a wonderful year with ball in hand (17 league wickets at 11.18), Vincent went up the teams, and Currie didn't play as much, and it left a gaping hole in the Clontarf team that wasn't filled. The batting was nearly non-existent - only two players passed 100 runs, and they were both at an average of under 17, and seven times they were dismissed for 120 or less. As mentioned above, Ali was excellent, and Sean Devilly was also destructive, with 17 wickets at 16.35, but two bowlers couldn't carry an entire team.

Division 7 batting averages 2015 (Qualification 100 runs)

Division 7 Bowling averages 2015 (Qualification 6 wickets)