IBI CORPORATE FINANCE CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW – JUNE 17TH

The third round of fixtures in the IBI Corporate Finance Championship takes place this weekend, and we go into the weekend with three unbeaten records on the line, one of those is sure to fall in this round, as Rush host Pembroke, whilst Phoenix travel to Terenure and put their record on the line. Winless North Kildare host North County, who hammered them just a few weeks ago in the first round of the cup, and finally in The Mardyke, one of Cork County and Civil Service will pick up their first win of the season.

TERENURE VS PHOENIX

Starting off in Dublin 6, Terenure play host to a Phoenix side which has had a decent start with two victories, although Civil Service made their near neighbours work harder than Phoenix would initially have hoped. This week’s visitors escaped Terenure with a narrow victory in last year’s Senior League Cup tie between the teams, in what was the last 50 over meeting between the pair. Phoenix’s top order faltered somewhat that day, however this season it has a totally different look to it. Levon Shields and Callum O’Byrne at the top are two contrasting styles of batting, whilst Kiwi Jed Wiggins at three is the man they will look to build their innings around. Tyrone Kane, Adam Chester, Theo Dempsey and Oli Hald are the four men in the middle order who will all look to attack the boundaries, provided there is a decent foundation laid for them. With the ball, the seam options come from Kane, Dempsey and Hald, supported by Wiggins as the 6^th bowler, whilst there are a pair of very high quality spinners at the disposal of the skipper, in leggie Ben White, and Amish Sidhu who was on duty with the Leinster Lightning at the recent IP20 festival in Cork.

The home side meanwhile got off to an excellent start, piling up a big total against North Kildare, before the batting faltered badly last weekend against Pembroke. The one exception was Séamus Lynch, who made a better than run-a-ball 77, smashing Gavin Hoey in particular to all corners of the ground. The side this weekend welcomes back Sid Nair whilst there’s a first appearance of the season for Gareth Morgan, with both set to bat in the middle order. At the top Henry Dall is likely to be joined by Liam Harris in the absence of Donal Vaughan, whilst Raghav Grover, Dónal Lynch and Niqash Ali rounds off the batting unit. With the ball, Mark Thomas is missing for this fixture, meaning Grover will lead the seamers, with support from Darsh and Kripesh Shetty along with Bhavic Tukrel being the fourth man in the attack. The spinners in the side are Harris and Ali, who have each bowled well in their appearances so far this season. Having lost last weekend, Terenure will need a win in this fixture to bounce back, with the tricky trip to Cork to look ahead to the following weekend.

In the absence of Mark Thomas, Raghav Grover’s opening spell for the home side becomes incredibly important, he will no doubt be the man tasked with dismissing the Kiwi Jed Wiggins in the number three slot for Phoenix, and if he can do so, it will give Terenure a chance to get into Phoenix’s attacking middle-order early in the piece.

KEY BATTLE: Raghav Grover vs Jed Wiggins

RUSH VS PEMBROKE

The game of the weekend is no doubt Pembroke’s visit to Rush, the away side made somewhat heavy weather of their run chase against Terenure last weekend, Diarmaid Tucker’s 41 got them off to a good start, however skipper Theo Lawson and Macdara Cosgrave needed to be extremely sedate in the manner which they went about accumulating the last 50 runs of the chase. JJ Garth and Nick Stapleton have been in good form before last weekend and will be hoping to pick back up again, whilst the return of Fiachra Tucker has made the batting line-up look more powerful again. With the ball, Stapleton’s spells with the new ball have been excellent, and he has invariable taken some crucial early wickets, Zach Micklewright and Piyush Sharma are the other seamers in the side. The spinners are led by Paul Lawson who took five wickets in the cup quarter final last weekend, whilst skipper Lawson appears happy to see Gavin Hoey go for plenty of runs whilst he appears to be a chance of taking wickets. Fiachra Tucker was used as a strike bowler last weekend and it’s likely he’ll be employed in the same vein this time around as well.

Rush meanwhile come into this game off the back of a fixture last weekend where they won in spite of failures from their “big three” – Llew Johnson, Neil Rock and the skipper Nathan McGuire will therefore all be looking to bounce back in this fixture, even more so with it being their first home game of the season, the trio of destructive batsmen will no doubt be in an attacking mood, looking to take advantage of their power hitting with Kenure’s short boundaries in play. Jack McGee, Andrew Doheny and Brandon Morris have all played match-winning knocks for the home side in the past couple of weeks, whilst Cian Egerton and Jarred Barnes are also powerful strikers who will look to add more runs than they have so far this season. With the ball, Barnes and Egerton are a potent new ball pairing, whilst there’s more seam from Asher Abbasi and Doheny. The spinners are principally McGuire and Morris, with those 6 providing plenty of variation and options for change throughout the 50 overs.

Considering how many early wickets Nick Stapleton has taken this season, his role here will again be vital to Pembroke, with a couple of wickets potentially being the difference between 30 and 100 runs being scored in a PowerPlay against this Rush line-up, Kiwi Llew Johnson will face up to the Australian in another Trans-Tasman Key Battle this weekend!

KEY BATTLE: Llew Johnson vs Nick Stapleton

NORTH KILDARE VS NORTH COUNTY

The second time these two sides have met in 50 over cricket in The Maws this season, after the Inch side had delivered a comprehensive victory in the first, they will be eager to repeat the dose this weekend. Youngster John Devane made his first senior 100 last weekend at the top of the order, and alongside a return to form for Niall McGovern, they seem to have a more solid base from which to work on at the top of the order. Eddie Richardson and Jonno Andrews are the next two very experienced men in the batting order who will look to build on a good start from the openers, whilst Forqan Hassanzada and Luke Whelan will also bat in the middle order and play in an attacking manner. With the ball, the quick bowling brothers, Sattar and Ghaffar will both be keen to get on top of North Kildare early in the piece, whilst Richardson’s skills could be suited to the type of wicket produced in The Maws in recent weeks. Skipper Sean Sludds rounds out the seamers in the bowling attack, with the spin option likely to be the leggie, Tanvir Hasan.

North Kildare have been boosted in recent weeks by the addition of Shahrukh Shamim to their bowling unit, whilst Devansh Bansali also returned last weekend. That pair along with Husnain Maroof and Mohammad Zaman are a little more of a solid unit than the one which began the season for the Kilcock side, with the fifth and sixth bowlers again likely to be Akilesh Sharma and Samran Patel. With the bat, skipper Sayed Medhi Shah began the season with a good knock against Terenure, whilst Patel will likely join him at the top and he was the only man to show any resistance in last weekend’s dire batting effort against Rush. Badeeu Zaman, Syed Ali Rizvi and Josh Uddin will also likely occupy positions in the top 6, with Maroof also set to be in the mix as an explosive, boundary hitting option should he get going. Their long tail will remain something of a concern, however they will be hoping for one of their top 6 to bat right through the innings to have a chance of building a good total.

With how reliant North Kildare are on the openers surviving to give them a chance of a decent total, the wicket of Sayed Medhi Shah could well be their most important. Abdul Sattar will fancy his chances of dismissing his former team-mate early, and if he does it will give the away side an immediate look at the Kilcock side’s soft underbelly.

KEY BATTLE: Sayed Medhi Shah vs Abdul Sattar

CORK COUNTY VS CIVIL SERVICE

The battle between the league’s two lowest ranked sides in 2022 takes place in The Mardyke this weekend, with one of the teams set to break their duck in this fixture. Cork County have suffered heavy defeats at the hands of the two most fancied teams in the league already this season, and will be looking at this game as an opportunity to kick start their campaign, the batting unit featuring Ross Durity, Benjamin Marris, Stefano di Bartolomeo and Byron McDonough has plenty of proven firepower at this level, and although it appears strong, doesn’t feature as much depth as some others in this league would do. The bowling line-up is led primarily by McDonough’s quick medium pace, whilst the left-arm spinning duo of Diarmuid Carey and skipper Abubakar Saddique will seek to cause trouble. Nabeel Anjum’s leg spin is the other wicket-taking option in the side on these usually turning Mardyke pitches.

Service will see this as a good chance to get a win on the board, with their batting having been in decent nick in recent weeks, whilst Cork County’s has struggled to really get into games. Skipper Mubasher Siddique has contributed well in the middle order, but it’s really in the top three, where Ramji Padmanaban and Srikanth Boddu will likely be found, that need to lay the foundation to allow their men in the middle to capitalise. Binson Thambi and Arjun Chandrasekar are two more men who will be keen to deliver some valuable runs for the side. With the ball, Naveed Khan has been excellent with the new ball, Thambi and Siddique will also provide seam options, whilst Aamir Bafanda, Dhiraj Shetty and Chandrasekar will all be likely to provide some overs for the skipper at some stage in the 50 overs.

Considering how important Naveed Khan’s opening spell is likely to be for the visitors, Ross Durity’s role at the top of the order for Cork County will be to see off the Service strike bowler and hope to lay a foundation for the middle order to capitalise on.

KEY BATTLE: Ross Durity vs Naveed Khan