Division 8 review - Part 2

 Division 8 stats

Leading all time run scorer (2011-2015) - Nicky Fusco (Wicklow County) - 1176 runs @ 30.15
Most runs in a Division 8 season - Nadun Srimal Jasinghe (Bagenalstown) - 582 runs (2014)
Highest score - Umar Saleem - 166* - Knockharley 2 vs The Hills 3 - Milverton - 28 June 2014
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2015) - Khalid Chaudhary (Leinster/Wicklow County) - 46 wkts @ 16.57
Most wickets in a Division 8 season - Ali Qasim (Balbriggan) - 29 wkts (2011)
Best bowling - Chris Siddell - 7-11 - Malahide 4 vs Dundalk 1 - Malahide - 27 Apr 2014
Most matches - Nicky Fusco (Wicklow County) - 41 - (2011-2015)

Highest team score - 293-5 - Balbriggan 2 vs Merrion 6 - Balbriggan - 12 Aug 2012
Lowest team score - 32 all out - Dublin University 2 vs Knockharley 2 - Knockharley - 30 May 2015

Review

Bagenalstown 1- Champions - (Predicted 8th) - Batting Rating 116 - Bowling Rating 111 - Overall Rating 227

Bagenalstown 1 lifted their third league title, and their first since 2001, a title all the sweeter after we predicted them to come bottom of the league! The season started well with three narrow wins, before a mid-season stutter against fellow contenders, YMCA 4 and Leinster 4 brought about some doubt. However, Carlow's premier team responded well, and they won the last six matches to win the league fairly comfortably. When the pressure was on, a few of those six wins needed great application, and four times they chased down totals, with the 7 wicket win chasing 224 against Civil Service being the highest. Bernard O'Mara top scored in that match, and his contributions were once again vital. He scored 265 runs at 53, in the process becoming the first player to score 1000 runs for Bagenalstown 1 (since records began in 2011). Nadun Srimal Jasinghe also scored heavily, totalling 333 at 37.00, and it was appropriate that he became the second to 1000 competitive runs, when he had scored 21 against Balbriggan 2 on August 30th. The two players also completed the highest partnership for Bagenalstown, and the highest 1st wicket partnership in Division 8, when they added 208 against YMCA in June (a game Bagenalstown lost). The second strongest batting order in the division was complimented by Russell Duffin, who only played in four matches, but hit 167 at 55.56 (with all four games being won). The bowling was also worthy of a championship winning side, with Mohammed Ismail returning a masterful 21 wickets at 11.24, and Jasinghe 17 at 10.88

YMCA 4 - Runners up - (Predicted 4th) - Batting Rating 140 - Bowling Rating 92 - Overall Rating 232

YMCA 4 improved their league position for the 4th consecutive year, with the success being very much built upon an extraordinary year for their batting. The bowling, with one exception was nothing to write home about. Only once (Dublin University 2) was a team bowled out for less than 100, and only one player, Mitchell Thompson, stood out. Thompson had a fantastic year though, taking 16 wickets at 12.81. The batting was the part of the YM game that broke the records though. Dar Ahmed had his best season with the bat, scoring 262 overall ,and 211 runs at 35.17 in Division 8. Andrew Blair-White had a similarly successful season, topping his previous best for runs in a season (568 in total), and 301 runs at 43 in Division 8. But the real plaudits go to Nathan Johns. He became the 9th player to score 1000 runs in a Cricket Leinster Open Comps season (since our records began in 2011); the only one in 2015, and the first player from YMCA to achieve the feat. In Division 8, he narrowly failed to break Nadun Srimal Jasinghe's 2014 record for most runs in a season, but still clocked up 511 runs at 56.78, with six 50s.

Leinster 4 - 3rd - (Predicted 6th) - Batting Rating 111 - Bowling Rating 101 - Overall Rating 212

Leinster will be happy enough with their league position, 59th - identical to their 2014 title winning position, but 3rd place this year due to re-organisation. The season started well, with three straight wins, although three consecutive losses in July/August put an end to any hopes of retaining the Division 8 title. Only two players have topped 500 runs for Leinster 4 since 2010, and both were to the fore again this year. Chris Oosthiuzen now has 1323 Leinster 4 runs, and this year's contribution was 270 at 27. The only other member of the 200+ club was Vimal Jacob who had a dominant season, and was Leinster's leading run scorer and wicket taker. His 436 runs for Leinster 4ths in 2015 (at 33.54) were the most in a season for the team, whilst his 22 wickets @ 21.32 were also distinctly useful. David Lappin cruised past 100 career wickets (since 2010), when he took 3-20 against Wicklow County on May 17. His 20 wickets at 11.30, coupled with Owen Berryman's 16 at 13.62, should have been a title winning bowling attack. Four of the five league matches were lost when Leinster were bowled out for under 160, and the bowlers just didn't have anything to work with.

Knockharley 2 - 4th - (Predicted 5th) - Batting Rating 84 - Bowling Rating 130 - Overall Rating 214

Yet another team in this division that has improved their league position every year for the past five seasons. It is safe to say that Knockharley's decent season was built upon their bowling rather than their batting. Let's deal with the batting first - no passed 200 runs for the season. It would be easy to think that the season must have been one endless run of collapses, but that wasn't the case. They lost five league games, and finished up with scores of 213, 135, 100, 169 and 144. Not brilliant, but not a succession of batting failures either. The bowling was a whole lot better, with Sohail Qaisar taking 17 at 11.65, and Daneyall Janjua 10 wickets at an excellent 9.90. Not a dominant season, but any season where a team finished in its highest ever league position cannot be sniffed at!

Balbriggan 2 - 5th - (Predicted 2nd) - Batting Rating 98 - Bowling Rating 99 - Overall Rating 197

Balbriggan 2 slipped one further place down the rankings of 2nd teams, with Knockharley moving above them, as Balbriggan finished in 61st place, the same as in 2011. It was the middle of June before the team won, but a pair of wins over Leinster and Knockharley, alongside another couple of victories in early August meant that Balbriggan were able to edge ahead of the other strugglers, and find safety. Three bowlers; Raja Akbar (16 wickets at 14.38); Roger Kear (18 at 12.56) and Cian Nulty (12 at 17.08) meant that the bowling was just about competitive, and it was a similar story with the bowling. However, although six batsmen passed 100 runs, for the season, it was only Syed Mehdi who passed 200 - 269 at 44.83.

Dublin University 2 - 6th (Predicted 1st) - Batting Rating 83 - Bowling Rating 114 - Overall Rating 197

It is something of a cliché, but the unpredictable nature of undergraduate cricket meant that our prediction of Dublin University winning the Division 8 title was wildly inaccurate. There was to be no repeat of the 2013 Division 9 title, but the 2015 finishing spot was three places higher than in 2013, and hence a certain amount of satisfaction may be hovering around the Pav dressing rooms. Whilst normally, teams playing home and away goes some way to balancing out ground factors when looking at stats, Trinity played six of their seven games at home. With College Park nit quite offering ideal batting conditions these days, runs are always going to be hard to come by - in a truncated season, it is always going to be difficult to score 200 runs - Soumya Bannerjee with 158 runs at 52.67 was top the class, with Garin Howell and Philip Blackley deserving an honourable mention. The bowling was a bit better, Nitin Rajwar taking 13 wickets at a very impressive 8.23.

Wicklow County 1 - 7th (Predicted 7th) - Batting Rating 90 - Bowling Rating 94 - Overall Rating 184

One player stood out for Wicklow County this season. David Rice scored 344 runs at 49.44 and took 13 wickets at 25 - one of only three players in the division this year to score 200+ runs and take 10+ wickets (Leinster's Jacob, and Bagenalstown's Jasinghe were the others). Rice scored four of the team's six 50s, and was instrumental in all the team's victories - scoring 82*, 79*, 57* and 7 (taking 3-21 in that match). However, the bad start to the season (they were 0-5 in mid June), meant that Wicklow were always going to struggle to avoid relegation, and needing to beat champions Bagenalstown in the last game, they lost by 4 wickets. There were some other decent bowling performances, with Jason Hogan taking 17 wickets at 12.88, Damian Joyce 14 at 16.13 and Trevor Koen 16 at 12.94. But it was the absence of one more productive batsmen that cost the team, raising the possibility of Division 9 in 2016.

Civil Service 2 - 8th (Predicted 3rd) - Batting Rating 82 - Bowling Rating 76 - Overall Rating 158

Availability of players (or perhaps consistency of selection) seemed to be Civil Service 2's main problem this season, with a massive 39 players playing, and only one player (Alan O'Hara) playing more than six of Civil Service's eleven games. Not surprisingly, very few players managed to put together prolific seasons - only Shamil Shahzad passed 200 runs (231 at 46.2) and only Alan O'Hara took more than ten wickets (11 at 25.73). But despite that, and even talking into account Service's presumed relegation, it was not the end of the world. Since a 2011/12 reorganisation in Service, the 2nds have only finished above this season's 64th place once (in 2014). 2014 looks like a positive blip, with 2015 being more of a normal Service performance. They may take some stopping next year.

Division 8 batting averages 2015 (Qualification 100 runs)

Division 8 Bowling averages 2015 (Qualification 6 wickets)