IBI CORPORATE FINANCE CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW – ROUND 11 (AUGUST 17TH)

Before mentioning any of the fixtures for this weekend, I would like to dedicate this edition of the preview to the memory of a long-time club colleague and friend, Derek Brennan.

Derek’s sudden passing this week has rocked all those within the Terenure Cricket Club community and indeed further afield.

Whilst doing a lap of the ground in Terenure a couple of weeks ago, Derek mentioned to me that he was a regular reader of the CL Match Previews and deemed them to be “astonishing and brilliant”! As anyone who knew Derek will attest, he was always honest and fair so I will always treasure him taking the time to provide me with a word of encouragement in that way. I hope that Derek’s seal of approval will inspire me to produce a high standard article each week. I will certainly miss his reassuring presence at our club.

Go dtuga Dia suaimhneas síoraí dó.

Irish Cup Final weekend as usual sees the IBI Corporate Finance Championship taking centre stage on Saturday, and with the league title wide open, and the battle for the qualification for next season’s Premier League also really heating up, this round of fixtures look set to be absolutely vital.

In Park Avenue, Terenure are the visitors to Railway Union, and will be seeking a second league victory in a row, whilst their hosts aim to put pressure upwards in the table too. The Fingal derby this weekend sees The Hills and North County facing off in Skerries in what is always one of the most hotly contested fixtures in the calendar. North Kildare play host to Rush, with the Kenure men looking to warm-up for Sunday’s National Cup Final with a win, whilst finally in the Phoenix Park, Civil Service face off against Cork County in what looks to be a must-win game for the home side.

RAILWAY UNION VS TERENURE

A fixture which is always a hotly contested battle will see Terenure aiming to claim their first win in Park Avenue since 2014 at 1^st XI level, with their two victories in that summer supplemented by only one other win on record in Park Avenue since 1982, that coming in May of 1991. With Kenny Carroll not featuring for Railway Union, there’s nobody set to play in this weekend’s fixture that participated in either of those 2014 games. Railway’s batting unit however remains strong, with Hedayat Khogiani and Ashil Prakash at the top of the order and Rob O’Brien at number three having all been extremely consistent so far this season. They will lay a platform for the likes of the skipper Philippe le Roux, and trio of all-rounders in Liam McCarthy, Srihan Karpe and Fakhar Zaman to build on. Peter le Roux continues behind the stumps for the home side here having shown to be a fine operator early in his 1^st XI career. With the ball, Sean O’Brien and McCarthy will lead the way in the opening spell, and with support coming from Zaman Safi and Mark Canniffe, they will pose an extremely dangerous threat to Terenure’s top order. That’s before looking at the spin attack, which includes both Zaman and Karpe who will both offer right-arm off-spin options that could be tricky to deal with.

Terenure meanwhile will welcome back Sid Nair for this fixture, with Gareth Morgan unavailable to play making for a straight swap between the two, however with Gethin Kelleher having made his first big contribution of the season at number three a couple of weeks ago, Nair may have to settle for a move from the spot where he has enjoyed a fruitful few matches. Around that pair, Donal Vaughan appears at the top of the order, whilst the explosive opener Séamus Lynch will also feature along with left-hander Henry Dall. All-rounder Raghav Grover rounds out the batting line-up at number six. With the ball, they are led by opening swing-bowler Dylan Cleary, who’s the side’s top wicket taker this season, and he generally shares the new ball with Grover, they will be supported by Jinal Khatri’s leg-spin alongside the two other seamers in the side in the shape of Kripesh Shetty and Nawaz Khan.

The skills of Terenure’s new ball bowlers has been what has really kept them competitive in any games where they’ve fired shots so far this season, and Dylan Cleary’s opening burst will once again be vital. If Cleary can knock over Railway’s number 3, Rob O’Brien in the early part of the home side’s batting innings, it could prove hugely important to the momentum of the game.

KEY BATTLE: Rob O’Brien vs Dylan Cleary

THE HILLS VS NORTH COUNTY

For the first time since July 1997, The Hills and North County face off in the second tier in The Vineyard, and although they have fought out ties in the ground more than 20 times in the intervening period, it is still over 6 years since the last time the pair faced off in the Skerries ground in a league fixture. The last ten encounters between the sides in all competitions in the ground have been split five wins apiece, and the scorecard across three games in all venues this season between the two teams is 2-1 in North County’s favour, this game is a derby in the truest sense, and doubtless the formbook will once again fly out the window as the local rivals do battle.

The Hills will be desperate to get a win over their near neighbours here, as with the middle of the table beginning to concertina, they will be extremely keen to secure Premier League cricket for next season. Having suffered a chastening defeat to league leaders Rush last weekend, their batting unit will need to stand up and be counted if they are to have a chance of victory here. Brandon Kruger at the top of the order is always key to the side, whilst there was a change last time around which saw him joined by Yaseen Sherzad, if he translates some of his middle order form into good starts for the side, it could offer The Hills’ innings a completely different complexion. Will Archer was in the runs in last week’s game, and can probably expect to occupy a middle order role alongside skipper Tómas Rooney-Murphy and Andy Kavanagh. Nicolaj Damgaard will be another man hoping to have a big impact, with his clean ball-striking having the potential to change a game in a heartbeat. With the ball, the seamers of Sean McNicholl and Matthew Weldon lead the way, along with the skipper Rooney-Murphy, whilst they will be hoping to see Cian Nulty also return to action this weekend to provide some extra zip. The three-pronged spin attack has been in fine form for the last few weeks, with Kruger and Damgaard providing right and left arm off-spin options respectively, whilst Febin Manoj has arguably been their breakthrough of the season, with his slightly unorthodox off-spin having the ability to deceive batters through the air and off the pitch.

North County meanwhile have been in a strange run of form since returning from the T20 window, they bounced straight back from the disappointment of a heavy defeat in Cork and loss in the National Cup semi-final with big wins over Civil Service and Terenure, however they only scraped home from a strong position against North Kildare, before letting second position in the table slip last weekend against Railway Union. They have some batters in reasonable form, however only once in those five fixtures has more than one of their top four batters passed 22, making plenty of work for the man who does get in to do with the middle and lower order. Suliman Safi has been in excellent nick, and should relish the batting wicket in The Hills, whilst the skipper Niall McGovern has been threatening to make a big score at the top of the order for a number of weeks. In the middle order, Eddie Richardson and John Devane have both made contributions and will need to be in top form for this tie. With the ball, they will be looking to Richardson as usual to lead from the front, whilst the side features both of the brothers Abdul this week, with Ghaffar providing the extra pace and Sattar always boasting the ability to deliver a game-breaking spell. Ashish Jain rounds out the seamers, whilst Alan Joseph Mathew will be the frontline spinner in the side, with the potential for support from Safi should the game situation require it.

This fixture does lend itself to men for the big occasion, and Eddie Richardson’s ability to find an extra ten percent against local rivals is something that all around him know well about, if his opening spell can knock over Brandon Kruger cheaply, North County will be firmly on the front foot, and in with a chance of a vital win.

KEY BATTLE: Brandon Kruger vs Eddie Richardson

NORTH KILDARE VS RUSH

North Kildare will be looking for their first league win in 5 games here, and in a similar vein to North County above, will really be hoping to see two of their batsmen in the top order put together a big partnership to give themselves a chance of putting up a fight against the league leaders. They currently lead the head-to-head in The Maws 3-2, however Rush have won the past three ties between the sides by margins of 83, 195 and 96 runs, so their recent domination over the Kilcock side is there for all to see.

The home side’s batting is led by Abidullah Taniwal, who generally occupies a slot at number 6 in the order, and he has on occasion, and particularly last week, shown an almost unbelievable ability to dig his side out of a hole and make them competitive. His efforts will require more support from fellow all-rounders Husnain Maroof and Bakhtyar Nabi, whilst top order batters in the shape of Josh Uddin and Badeeu Zaman will also need to contribute. Waqar Azmat has returned to their starring list for this month and if he was also to appear it would prove to be a major boost to the team in the top order. With the ball, they will look to Taniwal and Maroof early on to move the ball around, whilst Yashraj Mate also provides a good left-arm option. Abdul Aryan and Mohammad Zaman round out the seamers, with Nabi and Azhar Syed both offering some decent off-breaks which no doubt could prove to be a tough prospect on their home deck this weekend.

Rush meanwhile could be easily forgiven for having one eye halfway down to Cork for their National Cup final on Sunday, however they come into this game with a full deck available to them. The form of their Aussie opener Josh Doyle has been brilliant in recent weeks and his ability to adapt to the slower pitch conditions in The Maws could prove vital, whilst his opening partner Prasanth Viswanath has also been in some very strong form of late. Nathan McGuire has slid down to number three in the order and began to recover some of his form of last season, with that trio looking to power Rush into a position to allow the likes of Jack & Finn McGee, Hashir Sultan and Nasir Totakhil to get them to a big total. With the ball, they will see their two towering pacemen open the bowling in skipper Jarred Barnes and current over-40s international Allan Eastwood, they are supported by the left-arm of Alex Neary, and skiddy right-arm of Asher Abbasi, whilst they also boast three high-class spin options who could well cause more issues in The Maws than the home side’s bowlers, through the left-arm offies of Totakhil, and both McGuire and Doyle bowling their right-arm off-spin.

North Kildare’s batting simply must stand up if they are to have a chance here, and they will be up against a Rush attack gunning to shoot them out as quickly as possible, if Nasir Totakhil can take the big wicket of Abidullah Taniwal, it will put the visitors right on top and see them one step closer to the elusive league title win.

KEY BATTLE: Abidullah Taniwal vs Nasir Totakhil

CIVIL SERVICE VS CORK COUNTY

Just the fourth tie between these two sides takes place tomorrow afternoon, with Cork County having won all three thus far, batting first on each occasion and producing ever-increasing winning margins of 58, 67 and 94 runs since the sides first faced off in June of last term. Both wins last term saw early wickets for Byron McDonough for the men from The Mardyke, who obviously won’t feature in this tie as he’s now leading the way with the ball in the Premier League for Pembroke.

The home side will be looking to bounce back from a top-order collapse against Terenure last weekend, and that will be led by Deepak Jayachandran and Nilesh Joshi at the top of the order, whilst the classy Arjun Chandrasekar at number four is the key man in the context of the whole batting order. Their all-rounders in Vivekanandan Srinivasan and Asadullah Ahmadzai will fill slots in the middle order, whilst it will be interesting to see if Binson Thambi or Simranjeet Singh may potentially return to the batting unit. With the ball, they are led by Mubasher Siddique and Naveed Khan, whilst Digamber Mishra is the third seamer in the side with those three all providing very good control early in the innings. Their main threats with the ball however will come from Ahmadzai and Srinivasan who’s off-spin have both produced some brilliant wicket-taking spells so far this season.

Cork County have suffered some batting woes early this season too, however they have shown the ability to bounce back. Their top three are obviously crucial to the cause, with Mark Andrianatos and Benjamin Marris generally having opened the batting, with regular opener and skipper Ross Durity shifting down one slot to number three this season. They have Thorne Prophet and Ehsan O’Sullivan who are two very conventional batters in the middle order, whilst beyond that pair, Nabeel Anjum and Sunil Gautam showed their abilities a couple of weeks back against Terenure with counter-attacking half-centuries. That level of depth makes Cork County a very tough opposition to knock over cheaply, which could prove vital this weekend. With the ball, Andrianatos and Prophet make up a good opening pair, with seam support coming in the shape of Sam Fenn and Hamdullah Safi. Their spinners include Anjum’s leg-breaks, as well as Diarmuid Carey’s left-arm orthodox, which have both shown to be potent forces in recent fixtures.

Cork County’s spinners will need to be on song to out-bowl their Service counterparts, and that’s where they’ll look to Nabeel Anjum to deliver some spin in his spell, if he can dismiss the main stroke player Arjun Chandrasekar in the middle order, it will bring the away side right into the game.

KEY BATTLE: Arjun Chandrasekar vs Nabeel Anjum

IBI CORPORATE FINANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 11 – AUGUST 17^TH

ALL 12 NOON STARTS

At Park Avenue, Railway Union vs Terenure

At The Vineyard, The Hills vs North County

At The Maws, North Kildare vs Rush

At Civil Service, Civil Service vs Cork County