Ed Sports Russell Court Trophy Final Preview

Terenure 3 play North Kildare 3 in Park Avenue, the home of Railway Union. It has been a barren decade for the Terenure club, with their last silverware being the 2011 Division 2 title for the first team.
Terenure 3 won the Division 10 league title back in 2010, and the Russell Court Trophy has never made its way to Terenure in the eight times it has been played.
We don't have to look too far back in history to find North Kildare silverware, with the club famously winning six Open competitions in 2019. North Kildare 4 won this very competition, with the 3rds winning Division 12.
The two teams met back in 2017, with each team winning the away match in the league.
North Kildare have only lost once this season. and squeezed through their semi final last week, beating Finglas 1 by seven runs, mainly thanks to a spell of 3-8 from Matthew O'Meara.
No nail biting for Terenure 3 though, who have steam rollered their way to the final, winning all seven matches, before a thumping eight wicket win away to Gorey 1 in last week's semi final.
Terenure 3 finished in 107th place in the league in 2019, whilst North Kildare 3 were three divisions higher in 88th.

Terenure 3 - key players

Terenure's success has been all about their bowling attack, and two bowlers in particular. Philip Rout has had a fairly decent return with 12 wickets at 7.50, which would be enough to scare most teams. However, Rout is only the warm up act, with Darren Snell having also taken 12 wickets at an incredible average of 2.92, and 2.63 runs per over. Snell is a handy performer at this level, last year taking 3-21 for Terenure 1 as they beat Cork County by five wickets in Division 2 last year. With a bowling attack like that, the batting doesn't have too much pressure on it, and the leading scorers have been Vignesh Kumar (96 at 32) and David Lusby (94 at 15.67). 

North Kildare 3 - key players

This final looks like being a clash between North Kildare's batting and Terenure's bowling. Since Behzad Majeed made his North Kildare debut in 2013, no one has scored more runs for the club. He has 2332 at 24.55 in that period, and this year is the leading run scorer for the team with 197 at 39.40. Raman Bansal also has passed the century, with 106 at 35.33. The bowling has been steady, without the spectacular returns of Terenure. Four bowlers have taken five or more wickets, with two bowlers getting to six - Matthew O'Meara (the hero of the semi final) with six at 2.67 and Muddasir Zeb with six at 17.50

Venue

North Kildare 3 have only played two matches in Park Avenue in the last ten seasons (in 2012 and 2013), and have walked away empty handed both times. However, it was the venue for North Kildare 4's Russell Court Trophy win last year. Similarly, Terenure 3 haven't played in the home of Railway Union, with the last time any team from the club won being Terenure 2nd's one wicket win in 2014. The average first innings score on in Park Avenue this year has been 104. Sides batting first this year have won seven times, with the side batting second chasing successfully five times.