IBI CORPORATE FINANCE CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW – ROUND 4 (JUNE 1ST)

Week four of the IBI Corporate Finance Championship takes place this weekend, and after last weekend began with three sides defending unbeaten records, this weekend sees just two left standing, as The Hills and Railway Union are the only teams as yet to taste defeat in the league.

Both sides retain that record off the back of their fixtures in The Mardyke being rained off, and that’s where Civil Service visit this weekend, whilst there’s the derby fixture in North County, where The Hills are the visitors, whilst North Kildare make the trip from Kilcock to Kenure to take on Rush. The only all-South Dublin game in the league takes place in “the ‘Clee” with Railway Union facing off against Terenure.

Cork County vs Civil Service

This Cork County side have managed to navigate the entire month of May without taking the field, with both league fixtures, against Railway Union and The Hills, as well as a brace of Irish Cup fixtures against Balbriggan all rained off in that span. That makes their team quite hard to evaluate, however their one game of the season so far has indicated they will have something of a settled side when compared with last season. Ross Durity, Benjamin Marris and Mark Andrianatos make up a top three that features plenty of experience at this level, as well as their premier overseas player for this season. Beyond that three, Thorne Prophet shaped up nicely on occasions last season, whilst Syed Aiman produced plenty of runs following his mid-season move from Mullingar. With the ball, their pair of spinners this season feature right-arm offies from all-rounder Ehsan O’Sullivan and Nabeel Anjum’s leg-breaks, both of whom are attacking bowlers who have been willing to sacrifice runs for the reward of taking wickets. Sam Fenn, Hamdullah Safi, Prophet and Andrianatos make up the rest of a strong bowling unit which should see the side be somewhat competitive at this level, if they can get the ground to a level where it can be used after the unseasonably poor weather to start the season!

Civil Service meanwhile bounce into this game off the back of a remarkable victory last weekend, as they pulled an excellent defence of 214 out of the bag in the last few overs with the ball. Nilesh Joshi was the mainstay at the top of the order, batting through a tough opening period to make a fluent 43, and they will need him to once again be on song. Their middle order features plenty of other stroke players in Asadullah Ahmadzai, Arjun Chandrasekar, Dhiraj Shetty and last weekend’s half-centurion Junaid Altaf. With the ball, Ahmadzai was the hero of the hour last weekend, taking 7/44 and his off-breaks have proven to be an excellent option, an one which could well thrive in The Mardyke, along with fellow spinner Aamir Bafanda. Their seamers offer plenty of control with the new ball, with Naveed Khan and skipper Mubasher Siddique being two particularly strong operators, they have been backed up strongly by Digamber Mishra. They seem to have somewhat alleviated the concerns surrounding their fifth bowler in recent weeks, however it’s crucial for the side that these five all do a significant chunk of the bowling to keep them in the game.

Spinners are often key in The Mardyke, and the home side know well what they will get from their pair, however it could prove to be the Civil Service spinners and how much they can extract from the surface that proves to be crucial here, if Asadullah Ahmadzai can get on top of Syed Aiman in the Cork County middle order, it could be key to Service’s chances of keeping County under control.

KEY BATTLE: Syed Aiman vs Asadullah Ahmadzai

North County vs The Hills

A game for which the form book tends to go flying out the window here, as the local rivals face off in Inch. The away side snuck over the line last weekend against a fine Terenure fightback, only getting home by two wickets having at one stage been cruising to victory. That win was built around their middle order batting prowess as Nathan Rooney and Brandon Kruger both made half-centuries in the chase, Rooney however is missing this weekend so they’ll need someone to step up in that regard. Mubeen Ali returns behind the stumps, whilst the batting unit features the likes of the big Dane Nicolaj Damgaard, Andy Kavanagh and Yaseen Sherzad, who will all need to step up to the plate in this fixture. With the ball, the team is bolstered significantly by the return of their skipper Tómas Rooney-Murphy, as well as Sean McNicholl who is back in the country having permanently moved from Australia. McNicholl featured for the Leinster Lightning at the back-end of last season and could provide the cutting edge the team has seemed to lack in earlier games. The bowling line-up now looks very strong with those two added back on top of Cian Nulty, Muzamil Sherzad and Damgaard & Kruger’s respective spin options.

North County meanwhile have put together two huge batting efforts either side of a disastrous collapse in North Kildare, where only Eddie Richardson was able to stand up in a one-man effort. They are once again without Simi Singh, meaning there’s more pressure on the top order which features skipper Niall McGovern, who’s been in the runs of late, and their pair of left-handers John Devane and Suliman Safi, with all three surely hoping they can provide enough of a platform to allow Richardson, Alan Joseph Mathew and Abdul Sattar to really get after The Hills throughout the backend of the innings, something which they have done to particularly good effect in the two fixtures where they have scored big runs so far this term. With the ball, the attack is relatively settled and boasts one of the better opening bowling pairs in the league, possibly now only matched by their opposition here, in Richardson and Abdul Ghaffar. Sean Sludds and Sattar are the other seamers, whilst even in the absence of Singh, Mathew and Tanvir Hasan offer excellent off-spin and leg-break options to the side, and both could well be crucial again this time around.

After his fine knock last weekend, Brandon Kruger has really put something of a target on his head as the man in form to dismiss for The Hills, batting at number four, he may be faced with the significant challenge of Alan Joseph Mathew’s off-breaks to deal with, if Kruger can get on top of them early, it will give The Hills a strong chance of dominating the middle overs.

KEY BATTLE: Alan Joseph Mathew vs Brandon Kruger

Rush vs North Kildare

Rush come into this fixture looking to bounce back from a tough day at the office last weekend, and another frustrating dismissal after a start for overseas man Josh Doyle. Having shown he can certainly play, he will no doubt be keen to cash in this weekend on what the weather forecasts have down to be something of a batting day in Rush. Support among the batting group has been relatively thin on the ground, only Nathan McGuire, Hashir Sultan and Finn McGee have passed fifty in the league so far, and no innings has seen more than one batter pass fifty as yet. Elsewhere in the top 6, Brandon Morris and Rahmat Sahaq are two players who will be under pressure for runs. With the ball, Allan Eastwood was unfortunately injured early on last weekend and misses out this time, meaning there will be a new opening bowling partner alongside skipper Jarred Barnes, with Hassan Shahid brought into the side. Alex Neary’s left-armers will likely be another option used again, whilst last weekend saw 28 overs of spin bowled between McGuire and Doyle’s offies and Nasir Totakhil’s left-arm spin, and whilst there were something of an extenuating circumstances as to how that happened, it’s likely those three will be in action yet again.

North Kildare suffered a tough defeat last weekend, having collapsed from 181/5 to 193 all out in pursuit of 215. That collapse certainly doesn’t bode well for their chances this weekend. Baktyar Nabi was the top scorer with 45 and may well have earned himself a promotion for this fixture, however after the new batting line-up which they tried the week before was abandoned again for that loss, it may well remain to be seen what the lucky 8-ball throws up this time around. No matter what order they go in to bat, their key men will remain Husnain Maroof, Josh Uddin and Waqar Azmat, whilst Abid Taniwal’s ball striking will be another key component of how their innings flows. With the ball, Nabi’s offies are always crucial, and took another three wickets last weekend, whilst Imran ul-Haq is the other spinner in the side. Taniwal and Maroof are two excellent left-arm seam options, and are backed up by right-armers Sharukh Shamim and Mohammad Zaman.

Considering how North Kildare’s batting line-up folded in the face of some quality off-spin last weekend, they’ll be desperate to see Abid Taniwal taking on Nasir Totakhil in the middle overs.

KEY BATTLE: Nasir Totakhil vs Abid Taniwal

Terenure vs Railway Union

The final game in this round sees Railway Union making the trip to Dublin 6 to face off against Terenure. The away side are unbeaten as yet this season, with Rob O’Brien’s batting being the fulcrum of their two good efforts to open up the season, the teenager making 86 & 123 in his first two knocks. Liam McCarthy was another man to contribute in a big way so far in the league, whilst the gloves are being taken this weekend by Hedayat Khogiani who made a century the last time the side were on the field in Irish Senior Cup action. The rest of their batting unit features the likes of Ashil Prakash and Srihan Karpe, both of whom will be keen to improve on recent efforts. With the ball, McCarthy and Sean O’Brien make for a strong opening pair, whilst Zaman Safi and Piyush Sharma are more than adequate back-ups to those two. Their spin comes from Karpe, along with leggie Arshad Safi, who previously played against Terenure at this level for Pembroke.

Terenure meanwhile are without skipper Dónal Lynch this weekend, meaning Henry Dall takes the armband, and no doubt he will be keen to stamp his mark on the team after very nearly dragging them over the line with the ball last weekend. There’s also a debut for leg-spinning all-rounder Jinal Khatri, whilst Sadiq Safi also returns to the team having not featured since the first week of the season and Gareth Morgan makes his first appearance of the season. Dall and Séamus Lynch hold the key with the bat, and their efforts last weekend saw both making starts and no doubt they’ll be really keen to ensure if they get in this time around that they make a really big impact on the game. With the ball, Dylan Cleary’s opening spells have been crucial of late, and along with fellow paceman Kripesh Shetty they’ll look to use the extra bounce in Terenure to their advantage. Darsh Shetty and Raghav Grover are their two seamers beyond that pair that have bowled some good spells this season, and a vital aspect of the game this weekend will no doubt be how they manage to start fresh into their spells. Dall’s offies as mentioned already are a major boost to the side this season, with his 3/19 last weekend causing a Hills’ collapse and very nearly seeing Terenure dragging themselves across the line.

Railway Union’s left-hand heavy batting order will no doubt suit the bowling of Terenure’s opening bowler Dylan Cleary this weekend, and whilst Rob O’Brien has been responsible a massive amount of the runs so far this season, no doubt it will be Liam McCarthy’s wicket that Cleary is gunning to take for obvious reasons.

KEY BATTLE: Dylan Cleary vs Liam McCarthy