Fantasy League - Part IV

As this statistical marathon (yes I know they are Snickers now and Jif is now Cif) gets closer to the end and my winter hibernation can begin in earnest, I feel a few readers are starting to flag a little.

This episode is geared towards the bowlers. In these days of T20/IPL bowlers are made to look often like cannon fodder. Hit to all parts by batsmen wielding clubs rather than bats. The subtlety of leg glances has given way to the hoick over square leg. But since cricket was first played in the fields of Hampshire and Sussex the battle between bat and ball has swung one way then the other. This is a golden age for batting, but be assured of one thing. The bowlers will rise again: whether by legislation or design.

Here is our tribute to those magnificent men who serve up delivery after delivery, searching for that perfect “jaffa”, that elusive hat-trick, that perfect game.

Now the best bowling analysis’s, (or is it, analysises or analises [perhaps not]) have been achieved by the bowlers whose five wicket hauls have already been covered in this series, so we won’t be listing all the 5/ figures, but just the ones who went at least one further.

• 8-5 Munir Khan [CSCC]
• 7-24 W Clarke [Phoenix]
• 7-30 Mick Cotter [Terenure]
• 7-49 N Anjum [WWCC]
• 6-8 Steve Smith [Malahide] & Brian Parchment [NCCC]
• 6-10 B Sisinni                [Pembroke]
• 6-11 R Tariq [Clontarf] & V Krishna [Merrion]
• 6-14 A Abdullah [Cabinteely] & W O'Neill [Mullingar] & Susheel Kumar [R&SPU]
• 6-15 M Nurulain Boda [Castleknock]
• 6-17 Max Sorensen [THCC]
• 6-18 A Kavanagh [THCC] & M Thompson [YMCA]
• 6-19 Sean McCarthy [Clontarf] & Harry  Balbirnie [Pembroke]
• 6-20 Muhammad Javed [Dundrum]
• 6-21 L Ali [Ashbourne]
• 6-22 Tahir Rasheed [Knockharley]
• 6-24 S Livsey [CSCC] & S Khanna [Merrion] & A Nambisan [Sandyford]
• 6-25 A Khalid                [Carlow] & B Rao [Tyrrelstown]
• 6-27 S Rahim [ACC]
• 6-28 Gurmeet Singh [Sandyford]
• 6-33 Jeremy Dunleavy [Pembroke]
• 6-39 M Collier [Clontarf]
• 6-40 A Palmer [Leinster CC]
• 6-41 E Conway [Rush]
• 6-46 P Carty [Merrion]
• 6-52 Nicholas Donnelly [Rush]

In terms of bowling averages there are a number of bowlers who managed to take wickets whilst not conceding a single run. L Bingham [DUCC] managed to take 4 wickets for no runs and one wonders how he would have got on if he had bowled more than 5 overs. Hamid Ali [ACC] and Asad Ali Khan [AIB] both took two wickets and P Phillips [Dundalk] and C McLoughlin-Gavin [THCC] took a single wicket with a single ball. Lads, next year get out there and prove these performances are not statistical anomalies. Here are all the bowlers with averages below 10.00

• 00 L Bingham [DUCC] & Hamid Ali [ACC] & P Phillips [Dundalk] & C McLoughlin-Gavin [THCC]
• 00 Conor Maguire [THCC] & Sibu Jose [Swords]
• 00 H Rafiq [ACC]
• 00 S Sreenivasan [Dundrum]
• 20 V Nautiyal [Mullingar]
• 33 M Quinn [Longford]
• 50 S Barik [ACC]
• 80 Farooq Mohammad [Tyrrelstown]
• 00 R Periyakaruppan [ACC] & M Hughes [Dundalk]
• 50 R Bunworth [Clontarf] & R Delaney [Merrion]
• 00 Robin Russell [CCCC]  & S Jathin Chekhilla [Tyrrelstown]
• 50 K Dhanasekaran [AIB]
• 67 M Moghal [R&SPU]
• 75 B Howell [Merrion]
• 89 T Dempsey [Phoenix]
• 00 H Jayaweera [Carlow] & P Miller [Laois] & H Ramasetty [Merrion]
• 33 P Singh [NKCC]
• 40 B George [Swords] & A McGirl [THCC]
• 50 C Rock [Rush] & R Chalissery [Swords]
• 88 Nasrullah Khan [Castleknock]
• 89 Thomas Ryan [Dundalk]
• 00 T Bruton [Ashbourne] & S Priyendra [WWCC] & S Bombay Wala [THCC] & B Ovenden [Phoenix] & B Shanmugam [Dundalk] & T Wilkinson [Greystones]
• 30 Arslan Mehmood [Phoenix]
• 32 Ray Stapleton [Bagenalstown]
• 33 Sean McCarthy [Clontarf]
• 40 V Kelada [Phoenix]
• 50 Saddam Salim [Phoenix]
• 60 B MacNeice [Clontarf]
• 83 Upender Reddy [Merrion]
• 92 B Rao [Tyrrelstown]
• 00 Shan Raza [CSCC] & V Hooda [NKCC] & B Biju [CSCC] & M Small [NKCC]
• 12 Ayush Nautiyal [Mullingar]
• 33 A Quigley [Greystones]
• 50 H Akram [Knockharley]
• 58 N Anjum [WWCC]
• 00 Adnan Khan [DUCC] & F Madasseri [Dundrum] & Aidan Chester [Phoenix] & Michael Brown [Phoenix] & D Worrall [R&SPU]
• 50 V Yanam [Carlow] & O Lawless-Quinn [Ashbourne]
• 60 G Luff [AIB] & S Corbert [Clontarf] & C Marais [R&SPU]
• 62 A Ameen [ACC]
• 67 Jackson Santhosh [Swords] & G Lynch [Terenure] & M Samram [YMCA]
• 76 L Ali [Ashbourne]
• 80 F Naseem [Laois]
• 86 M Rutledge [Merrion]
• 92 R Adi [Knockharley]
• 00 Alan Murphy [WWCC] & J Carty [Greystones] & M Ahmad [Phoenix] &            Thomas Murphy [THCC] & Cillian Doyle [Bagenalstown] & N Black [Phoenix] & K Kumar Voona  [AIB] & J McNiece [Clontarf]

In these days of limited overs, the days of drawn games long gone and a declaration disallowed in many cases, then economy rates are king. A bowler who doesn’t take any wickets but only concedes two runs an over is preferable to a captain than a ‘Harrods’ wicket taker who takes wickets, but at a ridiculously expensive rate. Here are the kings of economy rates.

Similarly to the table above, those bowlers who have taken wickets without conceding runs top this table too with an economy rate of 0.00. They are joined by two bowlers who didn’t take any wickets but no runs were scored from them either. One of them is good old Player Unregistered. 99 bowlers have managed to go for 3 an over or less. Look after these guys, they are your touchstones, your dependable, your turn to in a crisis men.

• 00 L Bingham [DUCC] & Asad Ali Khan [AIB] & C Casserly [Leinster CC] & Player Unregistered [WWCC] & Hamid Ali [ACC] & P Phillips [Dundalk] & C McLoughlin-Gavin [THCC]
• 33 H Bridge [Wicklow County]
• 00 P Bouclier [Laois] & O Martin [Phoenix]
• 23 V Nautiyal [Mullingar]
• 40 S Barik [ACC]
• 44 Adnan Khan [DUCC]
• 50 L Rielly [NCCC]
• 64 C Makin [Clontarf]
• 80 S Sreenivasan [Dundrum]
• 83 K Dhanasekaran [AIB] & M Blah [AIB]
• 00 M Singh [SBCC] & H Rafiq [ACC] & D Cawte [Ashbourne] & M Hughes [Dundalk] & Mubeen Ahmad [ACC] & Sathish Kumar [Cabinteely] & J Lochab [Carlow] & K Khan Durrani [Leinster CC] & R Allwright [Merrion] & S Lipson Ngai [NKCC]
• 06 Player Unregistered [Leinster CC]
• 11 Farooq Mohammad [Tyrrelstown]
• 12 G Bruton [Herald]
• 13 M Saliyan [AIB]
• 17 H Habib [ACC]
• 24 Ross Shivmangal [Knockharley]
• 25 Michael Brown [Phoenix] & Saddam Salim [Phoenix]
• 27 David Cooke [YMCA]
• 29 H Yadav [ACC] & S Tyagi [NKCC]
• 33 S Gopal [R&SPU] & Daljeet Singh [Sandyford]
• 38 P Singh [NKCC]
• 40 Johnny Archer [THCC] & A Taylor [Phoenix]
• 41 Ayush Nautiyal [Mullingar]
• 42 S Narayanan [Dundrum]
• 43 Arslan Mehmood [Phoenix]
• 50 D Power [Bagenalstown] & Cillian Doyle [Bagenalstown] & Arshad Ali [Lucan] & J McNiece [Clontarf] & G Dove [Clontarf] & E O'Neill [Leinster CC] & S Jathin Chekhilla [Tyrrelstown]
• 56 Kamal Merchant [YMCA] & Ray Stapleton [Bagenalstown] & M Barnes [Merrion]
• 57 Rajendra Singh [ACC] & I Chong [Dundalk]
• 62 S Priyendra [WWCC] & C Whelan [Malahide]
• 67 J Mockett                DUCC] & V Hooda [NKCC]
• 70 B Joy [Dundrum]
• 71 V Yanam [Carlow] &                 Jithin Jose [Lucan]
• 72 K Akepati [AIB]
• 75 L MacMahon [Leinster CC]
• 76 Jagdeep Singh [Castleknock]
• 78 C Byrne [Phoenix]
• 80 Alan Murphy [WWCC] & S Carty [WWCC]
• 82 N Srimal Jasinghe [Bagenalstown] & S McGrath [Dundalk] & Muhammad Shahzad [WWCC]
• 83 J Rice [Wicklow County] & M Moghal [R&SPU]
• 85 S Sethi [NKCC]
• 86 M Hossain Rony [Cabinteely]
• 87 J Lobo [ACC]
• 88 S Kumar Indraganti [Sandyford] & A Mohammed [Phoenix]
• 89 E Ali [Clontarf] & Nasrullah Khan [Castleknock] & Alan Lewis [YMCA]
• 91 G Angel [Knockharley] & A Abdullah [SBCC]
• 92 Mohammad Ismail [Bagenalstown] & Josh Reynolds [Knockharley]
• 93 Mahbabur Rahman [Knockharley]
• 95 T Rafiq [Castleknock]
• 97 S Kumar [Dundalk]
• 99 G Patwal [Wicklow County] & A Harris [CSCC]
• 00 A Williams [Dundalk] & V Kelada [Phoenix] & S Butler [DUCC] & H Ramasetty [Merrion] & Sibu Jose [Swords]

And now the “Boxer from Animal Farm” category. For those who have not read George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Boxer was the Shire horse who worked himself selfishly, doing more than his fair share, and kept working until he could give no more and was callously sold to the Knackers to be made into glue. I am not suggesting that any of our bowlers be sold off for glue (it wouldn’t stick), but certainly some seem to be worked very hard during our short summer season.

1,566 players were asked by their captains to turn over their straight arms this season, from C. McLoughlin-Gavin’s 1 ball to our leader in terms of overs bowled, Merrion’s A Varna’s 253.3 overs or 1,521 balls. No wonder he has a few wickets.

140 bowlers sent down more than 100 overs. Clontarf and ex-Ireland’s Alex Cusack was just two balls short of that mark.

• 3 ov 1,521 balls                 A Varma [Merrion]
• 1 1,435                           N Sharma [Merrion]
• 0 1,098                           Manpreet Singh [Greystones]
• 1 1,033                           S Streek [YMCA]
• 0 1,020                           Conor Gibbons [Malahide]
• 0 1,002                           Padraic Flanagan [YMCA]
• 1 996                               R Kear [Balbriggan]
• 2 992                               Joe Prendergast [Pembroke]
• 2 986                               Simranjit Singh [YMCA]
• 0 984                               T Mount [Mullingar]
• 4 964                               Y Ali [YMCA]
• 5 953                               Bash Vulker [Pembroke] & D Singh [R&SPU]
• 2 950                               A Van der Merwe [YMCA]
• 0 948                               H Askew [Malahide]
• 0 942                               Z Mohyuddin [NCCC]
• 4 940                               A Kavanagh [THCC]
• 4 916                               A Abbasi [NCCC]
• 3 915                               Jono Cook [Pembroke]
• 0 912                               Paul Lawson [Pembroke]
• 4 910                               M Granger [Clontarf]
• 0 894                               M Nurulain Boda [Castleknock] & Conor Kelly [Clontarf]
• 3 885                               Kamal Merchant [YMCA]
• 0 876                               M Farooq [R&SPU]
• 3 873                               JJ Garth [Pembroke]
• 5 863                               V Krishna [Merrion]
• 3 861                               Eddie Richardson [NCCC]
• 0 858                               W Kindley [Malahide]
• 2 854                               T Anders [Phoenix]
• 0 846                               K Everard [THCC]
• 5 845                               James Smith [Terenure]
• 3 831                               Sinto John [Greystones]
• 3 825                               Brian Parchment [NCCC]
• 2 818                               S Syamnivas [Leinster CC]
• 0 816                               Gurmeet Singh [Sandyford]
• 3 801                               Daniel Coffey [Rush]
• 1 793                               Manjeet Singh [NKCC]
• 0 786                               A Morris [Malahide]
• 0 780                               H Walser [THCC]
• 1 775                               J Morrissey [Clontarf] & S Stanton [Merrion]
• 4 772                               Aviral Shukla [YMCA]
• 1 769                               H Singaraju [Cabinteely]
• 4 766                               T Koen [Wicklow County]
• 4 760                               David Murphy [Pembroke]
• 0 754                               Dom Joyce [Merrion]
• 2 752                               Harry Balbirnie [Pembroke]
• 5 743                               D Vickers [Clontarf]
• 3 741                               A Joseph [Phoenix]
• 1 739                               Jeremy Dunleavy [Pembroke]
• 2 734                               Conor O'Gorman [Leinster CC]
• 0 732                               Steve Smith [Malahide]
• 4 730                               R Nair [Dundrum]
• 3 729                               Duane Harper [Balbriggan]
• 0 720                               M Sheraz [Laois] & D Rhoda [Merrion]
• 0 714                               J Cramp [Leinster CC] & M Sludds [NCCC] & S Bharti [Sandyford]
• 4 712                               A Nair [Swords]
• 2 710                               A Yawar [Castleknock]
• 1 709                               Jinto Mathew [Dundrum]
• 0 708                               J Anderson [Merrion] & Harry Tector [YMCA]
• 4 706                               M Farrukh [Balbriggan]
• 3 705                               E Connolly [R&SPU]
• 0 702                               S Dutt [Clontarf]
• 4 700                               M Rule [Leinster CC]
• 2 698                               Paul Ryan [NKCC] & V Iqbal [Sandyford]
• 1 697                               G Morris [Phoenix]
• 0 684                               T Stanton [Merrion] & Justin Doherty [Pembroke]
• 4 682                               A Malhan [NKCC]
• 1 679                               S Daniel [Dundrum] & J Carroll [Leinster CC]
• 0 678                               P Rout [Terenure]
• 5 677                               S O'Neill [Bagenalstown]
• 0 672                               M Bauer [CCCC] & N Yadav [R&SPU]
• 5 671                               Adam Ellison [Rush]
• 3 669                               T Quadri [CSCC] & P Saville [Malahide]
• 2 668                               C Sweeney [Mullingar]
• 0 666                               Amir Khan [Laois] & A Coughlan [NCCC]
• 1 661                               M Gopal [Clontarf] & David O'Connor [YMCA]
• 0 660                               C Nulty [Balbriggan]
• 2 656                               Z Shauket [Laois] & Susheel Kumar [R&SPU]
• 0 654                               Munir Khan [CSCC] & N Nagar [Merrion]
• 5 653                               Ryan Hopkins [Pembroke] & D Carolus [THCC]
• 3 651                               G Patwal [Wicklow County]
• 0 648                               A Abdullah [Cabinteely] & K Neela [Merrion]
• 5 647                               Willie Clarke [Phoenix]
• 4 646                               R Strydom [Malahide]
• 3 645                               Richard Wiz Hastie [Pembroke]
• 2 644                               R Gaur [R&SPU]
• 0 642                               SJP Moreton [Clontarf]
• 4 640                               Jitendra Singh [R&SPU]
• 2 638                               D Lappin [Leinster CC] & A McGuire [Rush]
• 0 636                               Lynal Jansen [Rush] & M Jacob [Swords]
• 4 634                               A Davies [Malahide]
• 3 633                               Craig Senior [Pembroke]
• 0 630                               A Sahota [Sandyford] & S Ramnathpur [Terenure]
• 4 628                               B Thambi [Dundrum]
• 3 627                               M Syfuzzaman Khan [CSCC] & F Hand [NCCC] & Wasif Ali [NKCC]
• 1 625                               Eoin Lenehan [Greystones]
• 0 624                               S Pendyala [Merrion]
• 4 622                               A Smit [Laois] & M Usman [Leinster CC]
• 3 621                               R Jones [YMCA]
• 1 619                               B Speake [Terenure]
• 0 618                               U Raees [Laois]
• 2 614                               D Brogan [Rush]
• 0 612                               E Ali [Clontarf] & S Kochappu [Dundrum] & M Kumar [THCC]
• 4 610                               S Joseph [Swords]
• 2 608`                              M Collier [Clontarf] & A Kumar [Sandyford] & Max Sorensen [THCC]
• 1 607                               Z Rasheed [Knockharley] & M Raza [R&SPU]
• 4 604                               Muhammad Saleem [Clontarf] & A Joshi [Sandyford]
• 3 603                               S Ullah [AIB]
• 1 601                               D Iqbal [AIB]
• 0 600                               N Rajwar [DUCC] & Manjinder Singh [Lucan]

This of course does not include all of the no-balls, wides and times that the umpire couldn’t count to 6. One over this season was a wicket maiden off just 4 balls. A lot happened in the over, but surely counting to 6 shouldn’t be a problem, especially when the scorer is there to be checked with. Dodgy LBW decisions are one thing,  but when the umpire (unofficial of course) can’t count to 6 it does not generate confidence in the rest of his calls.

Now there is just one more article to go. This is certainly an endurance event, as much as playing 37 games in 24 weeks. Hang on in there dear readers. Not because you need to or because you haven’t come across your name yet, but because having come so far it would be a shame not to finish.