IBI CORPORATE FINANCE CHAMPIONSHIP – MATCH DAY 8 (JULY 27TH)

This weekend sees the IBI Corporate Finance Championship enter the second half of the season, with last weekend’s fixtures having seen Rush climb to the summit for the first time this season, whilst Terenure pulled themselves off the foot of the table.

Match Day 8’s fixtures see Railway Union looking to keep pressure moving upwards as they are at home to North Kildare, whilst The Hills travel to face Civil Service. The new league leaders Rush travel to face Cork County, whilst North County play host to Terenure in a reverse of the opening fixture of the season.

RAILWAY UNION VS NORTH KILDARE

Railway Union have had a topsy-turvy few weeks in the league, an initial loss to North County seeing them slide to 2^nd, before jumping back to top spot two weeks ago, however last weekend’s defeat to Rush in a rain affected 20 over game has pushed them back down to 3^rd in an enthralling league title race. Their side boasts a strong bowling attack, headed by Liam McCarthy and Sean O’Brien, with that pair looking to claim some early wickets. Shakir Afridi and Zaman Safi will support them in the seam bowling department, whilst the spinners are led by Srihan Karpe this week, with his support likely to come from opening batter Ashil Prakash. They look to have a settled batting unit for this weekend, with Prakash likely to be joined by Kenny Carroll, and the well set middle order including Rob O’Brien, Hedayat Khogiani, Philippe le Roux and McCarthy likely to appear in that order, in what on paper looks to be an extremely strong top 6.

North Kildare meanwhile very nearly put The Hills to the swords last weekend, with the opening spells of Husnain Maroof and Abid Taniwal putting their opposition under pressure, only for the bowlers to fail to close out the innings. They will be hoping the return of Abdul Aryan and Anees Ahmad could see them have slightly more bite with their change seam bowlers, whilst the spin of Imran ul-Haq and their trump card Bakhtyar Nabi are the options which round out an attack where nearly anyone in the side could stake a claim to bowling a good spell. With the bat, gloveman Josh Uddin and top order batter Waqar Azmat are the two at the top who will be aiming to get the side on the front foot early, whilst Maroof and Taniwal like to showcase their all-round talents in the middle order by finding the boundary, Yashraj Mate and Badeeu Zaman both played huge roles in their recent victory over Terenure and could do so again this time around.

With Railway down to just one of their regular spinners this weekend, Srihan Karpe will be under pressure to keep the North Kildare middle order, and Abid Taniwal in particular under wraps, if the Afghan can get on top of the Railway teenager, it could see NK putting themselves into a very strong position with the bat.

KEY BATTLE: Srihan Karpe vs Abid Taniwal

CIVIL SERVICE VS THE HILLS

The Hills showed all of their fighting spirit last weekend in recovering from 103/9 to post 149, before an excellent effort from their bowlers castled North Kildare well short of their target. Their attack was led by Sean McNicholl, and he’s supported by seamers from both Cian Nulty and Matthew Weldon, with the skipper Tómas Rooney-Murphy rounding out the four man pace attack. It’s their spinners however that could prove crucial in Civil Service this weekend, and in Brandon Kruger and Nicolaj Damgaard, they have two high class operators who are likely to cause some major problems for the home side. Febin Manoj was the hero last week with the bat, however he’s not in the side this weekend and that could prove to be a big blow with the ball on this surface. With the bat, Kruger and Andy Kavanagh will look to give the side a good start, whilst Damgaard and Yaseen Sherzad will attack in the middle. Muzamil Sherzad is another man who can clear the ropes and he along with Nulty will be aiming to do some damage later in the innings to give the side a chance of a big total.

Civil Service meanwhile come into this game off the back of a chastening defeat to North County last weekend, and they will be aiming to bounce back big-style. Dhiraj Shetty skippers the side in the absence of Mubasher Siddique, with he alongside Naveed Khan and Digamber Mishra now being the primary seamers in the side. Vipul Kashyap is likely to be another bowling option, and the side is without Asadullah Ahmadzai this weekend, meaning that Vivekanandan Srinivasan is the frontline spinner in the side. With the bat, Simranjeet Singh and Nilesh Joshi will lead the way, with Arjun Chandrasekar remaining the class player in the middle order of the side and having his workload increased in the absence of Ahmadzai. Deepak Jayachandran is another man who’s contributed well in recent weeks and could prove important again this time around.

In the absence of Siddique, Naveed Khan’s opening spell to Brandon Kruger becomes even more important, as he’s likely to share the new ball with a less experienced bowler for the first time this season, if he can knock The Hills’ opener over early on, it will give Service a strong foothold in the fixture.

KEY BATTLE: Naveed Khan vs Brandon Kruger

CORK COUNTY VS RUSH

Top of the table Rush travel to The Mardyke carrying a live hope of winning a league & cup double this season. Their batting unit is in flying form, and is led from the front by Josh Doyle and Prasanth Viswanath, who are likely to open the batting. This has allowed Nathan McGuire to slide down slightly and use his power-hitting game in the middle order, alongside Jack McGee who made vital runs last weekend, and wicket-keeper Finn McGee who’s developed a full range of classy strokes to become a vital part of the batting unit. With the ball, they are still led by the captain Jarred Barnes, and his fellow tall seamer Allan Eastwood, with the pair extracting good bounce and lateral movement early in the innings most weeks. The fact that their spin attack is the main strength of their bowling is no slant on the quality of that pair, however Nasir Totakhil, Doyle and McGuire are likely to roll down 30 high quality overs which could prove more than useful in the generally spinner-friendly conditions in The Mardyke.

Cork County meanwhile are looking to bounce back from a hammering against Terenure last weekend, however they will take some comfort and encouragement that they didn’t simply fold having fallen to 6/4 and 62/6. That effort was thanks to lower order runs from Sunil Gautam and Nabeel Anjum, who will bat in the middle order, whilst Mark Andrianatos and Benji Marris will appear at the top of the order, followed by the skipper Ross Durity and classy South-African Thorne Prophet. Their bowling is led by Andrianatos and Prophet who are likely to share the new ball, whilst they have an abundance of spin options, including Ehsan O’Sullivan, Diarmaid Carey and Anjum, who all offer different varieties of spin which ought to keep the Rush batsmen on their toes in a very similar way to their opposition’s attack.

Cork County started very slowly last weekend, and Rush’s tall seamers would be just as quick to take advantage as Terenure were last time around, that makes Mark Andrianatos getting through the opening spell of Jarred Barnes extremely important, to allow the home side to get a foothold in the tie.

KEY BATTLE: Mark Andrianatos vs Jarred Barnes

NORTH COUNTY VS TERENURE

This was due to be the season curtain-raiser, however the fixtures were swapped owing to Inch being unplayable in late-April. North County took full advantage of the swap to Terenure, and will be looking for their batting to be just as influential this time around as it was that day. A change to the batting order bore fruit last weekend, as Ciaran Sheridan came into the side at the top of the order, allowing John Devane to bat in the middle order, both made runs in a good all-round effort, and if this pair can continue in that vein, it will ease the pressure on skipper Niall McGovern, Eddie Richardson and their classy number three Suliman Safi to put together the bulk of the runs on their own. Keeper Luke Whelan will likely also appear in the middle order in a County batting line-up that now looks less strong and more formidable. The bowling will be led by the usual suspects, with Richardson, and the brothers Abdul, Ghaffar and Sattar, set to do the main seam bowling load, along with support from Ashish Jain. The spinners in the side are led by Alan Joseph Mathew, with support in the shape of young leggie Johan George, who will hope to confirm his promise with a good showing this weekend.

Terenure meanwhile finally got on the board last weekend winning the final game of the opening round half of the league season. Dónal Vaughan has been the key man with the bat the last two weekends, with his solid tempo allowing the stroke players around him to piece together their innings’ in the typical belligerent style. Henry Dall and Séamus Lynch both looked dangerous, however fell having made starts, and will be aiming to capitalise on any starts this weekend, whilst Sid Nair continued his upward trend at number three. Raghav Grover adds some ballast in the middler order, however he wasn’t even required to bat last weekend and will relish the opportunity to hammer some late runs. With the ball, it was last week’s skipper Dylan Cleary who proved the most trouble, as he and Grover produced an excellent opening spell, one which they will be aiming to replicate again. They will be supported by Kripesh Shetty, as well as the leggies of Jinal Khatri, which are likely to prove challenging once again this weekend.

Dylan Cleary’s opening spell last weekend put Terenure right on top, and he’ll be looking to recreate that effort again this time around, if he can dismiss County’s number three, Suliman Safi, early on, it will give the visitors a major boost.

KEY BATTLE: Suliman Safi vs Dylan Cleary

IBI CORPORATE FINANCE PREMIER LEAGUE

MATCH DAY 8 – JULY 27^TH

ALL 12 NOON STARTS

At Park Avenue, Railway Union vs North Kildare

At Civil Service, Civil Service vs The Hills

At The Mardyke, Cork County vs Rush

At Inch, North County vs Terenure