IBI CORPORATE FINANCE CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW – JUNE 10TH

Much like the Premier League, the IBI Corporate Finance Championship also opened up more or less on script last weekend, with comprehensive wins for Pembroke and Terenure, whilst Rush beat the weakened North County side, the only minor surprise is perhaps the margin of victory for Phoenix, who were made to work right to the end to see off Civil Service by 4 wickets.

Those results see Pembroke lie top of the table on net run rate, having seen Rush also amass 25 points, whilst Terenure sit third with 23. The two pointless sides are North County and Cork County, whilst North Kildare have just one point to their credit, Phoenix and Civil Service occupy 4^th and 5^th respectively.

CORK COUNTY VS PHOENIX

Having been absolutely pummelled by Pembroke twice last weekend, Cork County will be delighted to see a team which doesn’t include JJ Garth in it visiting the Mardyke. Several of their new men suffered tough introductions to Championship cricket last weekend, only one batter making double figures as they were rolled over for 42. This standard is a big step up for the likes of Syed Aiman, who had been plying his trade for Mullingar in Division 6 until a few weeks ago. Cork’s middle order including Ritesh Sah, Stefano Di Bartolomeo and Byron McDonough will be the men looked to for significant run making contributions in this innings, with the openers having enough of a job on their hand to combat Phoenix’s excellent new ball attack. With the ball, McDonough and Di Bartolomeo will both be key, whilst the spin of Diarmuid Carey, Nabeel Anjum and Aboubakar Siddique will be set to play a big role as it always does in The Mardyke.

Phoenix’s campaign got off to a decent start last weekend, however having seen the damage done to Cork County last week by Pembroke’s seamers, there’s no doubt their big three of Tyrone Kane, Oli Hald and Theo Dempsey will be licking their lips at the prospect of getting stuck into what could only be described as something of a fragile batting line-up. Once through those three seamers, it doesn’t get easier, as IP pair of Amish Sidhu and Ben White offer up left-arm orthodox and leg-breaks respectively. With the bat, new signing Jed Wiggins has already looked to establish himself as the anchor in the side at number 3, he made an excellent 80 last weekend before being run out. Levon Shields and Callum O’Byrne both made starts at the top but couldn’t kick on, whilst Adam Chester’s return in the number 6 slot didn’t go as planned, Kane, Dempsey and Hald much in the same way as their bowling all offer hard-hitting with bat in hand, meaning this side can take a game away from it’s opposition in a heartbeat.

With the way last weekend panned out, the last thing Cork County want is to see one of Phoenix’s top three getting in and running away with the game, Byron McDonough will therefore be tasked with knocking over Jed Wiggins as early as possible, in an effort to get into the heart of the batting line-up and cause some panic.

KEY BATTLE: Byron McDonough vs Jed Wiggins

TERENURE VS PEMBROKE

The second fixture looks like the game of the day on paper, as Pembroke and Terenure face off for their fourth fixture in the last 28 days. The series score currently stands at 2-1 to this week’s hosts, however Pembroke enter the game as strong favorites after how comprehensive their victory was in the Leinster Senior Cup, and coming off the back of two mammoth victories last weekend. JJ Garth really found form last weekend, establishing himself as a key man in the batting line up with two big centuries, whilst there were also runs for Nick Stapleton, Diarmaid Tucker and Barry McCarthy. The returning skipper Theo Lawson, and his predecessor Fiachra Tucker, are two more who add bundles of experience and runs at this level to the batting line-up, whilst the explosive hitting of Gavin Hoey could prove beneficial at the back end of the innings. With the ball, Hoey joins Paul Lawson in a strong spinning duo, with the potential for Tucker’s leggies to also play a part, whilst the seamers are led by Stapleton, with support from Zach Micklewright, Joe Prendergast and Piyush Sharma.

Terenure meanwhile also come into this game off the back of two victories, however there was far less in the difference between themselves and their lower-league rivals Knockharley than they would have liked last Sunday. They too have players returning this weekend, both Liam Harris and Bhavic Tukrel come back into the side having missed both fixtures last weekend, they will both add hugely to the bowling attack which is led by Raghav Grover and Mark Thomas, but also features seamers Darsh Shetty and Kripesh Shetty. With the bat, there were runs last weekend for Grover and Donal Vaughan, whilst Henry Dall’s return improved on Sunday where he top-scored, Séamus Lynch, Liam Harris and skipper Dónal Lynch in the middle order also offer a more imposing look than the side has had in previous seasons.

After an excellent knock gave his side the platform to make a big total around last weekend, Dónal Vaughan’s ability to get through the new ball will be key for Terenure this weekend, if he can get beyond the opening spell of Nick Stapleton, it will allow Terenure’s middle order to take advantage of a solid base.

KEY BATTLE: Dónal Vaughan vs Nick Stapleton

NORTH KILDARE VS RUSH

This is a fixture where the visitors are sure to be licking their lips. Rush saw off North County twice last weekend without any of their big three at the top of the order really kicking on to a big score, skipper Nathan McGuire and overseas man Llew Johnson will relish the opportunity to get after the under-strength North Kildare side, whilst Neil Rock had a monster week for the Northern Knights in this week’s IP20 cricket, and will no doubt look to continue that run of form. Jack McGee’s runs in the National Cup last weekend were match winning of that there is no doubt, and with Cian Egerton also back in the side the unit looks stronger yet again. With the ball, Jarred Barnes will lead the way, with support from Egerton, Andrew Doheny and Dan Coffey, whilst there’s two spinners in the line-up this weekend, as Brandon Morris returns to join the skipper as the pair of offies in the side.

North Kildare’s frontline bowlers did well in the main last weekend, with Mohammad Zaman, Husnain Maroof and Akilesh Sharma all managing to keep the rate somewhat under control, however Ahmed Dar and Yashraj Mate were both very expensive and that will be costly if the same thing happens again this weekend. They were dug out somewhat by Josh Uddin and Samran Patel both taking two wickets, however skipper Sayed Shah will be hoping not to have to rely on his part-timers quite so much again this weekend. With the bat, Shah himself was in good touch making a half-century, whilst Badeeu Zaman and Maroof also both got going before giving their wickets away, the way which their tail fell will be of concern to the Kilcock outfit, with only one of the last 6 batters managing to face more than 6 balls.

Considering their proclivity to go big, any of Rush’s top three could be picked out as key man in this game, however after the week he’s had, ‘Pebbles’ is sure to be eyeing a big score up in this game. North Kildare will be desperately hoping that Husnain Maroof can take his wicket early in the piece, to give them a chance of restricting their visitors.

KEY BATTLE: Husnain Maroof vs Neil Rock

CIVIL SERVICE VS NORTH COUNTY

The final game in the Championship this weekend sees North County make the trip to the Phoenix Park to take on Civil Service. They will be desperate to put together a performance this weekend, having had an excellent position snatched away from them on both days last weekend. With the bat for the visitors Jonno Andrews has been in good form, whilst the men they will be looking at to lead the way alongside him will be Niall McGovern and Eddie Richardson, John Devane and Forqan Hassanzada are both also likely to occupy positions in the top 6, and the away side will be hoping for a good batting innings to set their season into motion. With the ball, Ghaffar and Sattar will be aiming to bounce back from expensive spells at the hands of Llew Johnson last weekend, whilst there are plenty of other options for skipper Sean Sludds including himself, Richardson, Digamber Mishra and Ashish Jain, with a myriad of medium pace set to be the backbone of the 50 overs the side has to bowl.

Civil Service put in a very fine performance to push Phoenix close last weekend to open up their season, their batting unit has finally began finding it’s feet here, with contributions from Asadullah Ahmadzai, Mubasher Siddique and Arjun Chandrasekar all rallying around a half century from Dhiraj Shetty to bring the side up to a very decent total of 210, one which will certainly win games in the league this season. With the ball, Naveed Khan provided a good opening spell taking two wickets, however somewhat like North Kildare, if a couple of their frontline bowlers fail to hit their lines and lengths, they will be relying on part timers to make up the difference, last week Ahmadzai was one of those who did so and took a wicket, however that is obviously far from the normal run of the game. This means there’s pressure on Aamir Bafanda and Siddique to produce good spells in support of Khan with the new ball.

Having seen Naveed Khan’s wicket taking ability in action last weekend, North County will know how important a good start to their innings is, Niall McGovern has been at the top of the order in this side for a number of years and will be the man tasked with getting his side off to the best possible start.

KEY BATTLE: Naveed Khan vs Niall McGovern