LHK INSURANCE ALAN MURRAY CUP - MATCH DAY TWO ROUND UP (JUNE 15TH)

This afternoon's LHK Insurance Alan Murray Cup results have helped to shed plenty more light on the potential qualifiers for finals day on July 6th.

GROUP A

We kick off in Inch, where North County welcomed Balbriggan for their two fixtures, the home side batted first in game one, and 38 apiece for Alan Joseph Mathew and John Devane saw them put together 137/7 off their 20 overs, Sam Willemse the pick of the bowlers for Balbriggan taking 3/25, whilst Dylan Lues won out in his battle with Suliman Safi, finishing with excellent figures of 2/19. The chase saw Ghanim Dara and Cameron Rowe getting off to a solid start, before Rowe was dismissed for a run-a-ball 30, as Dara eventually finished 68* from just 58 balls to guide the team to an 8 wicket win with 11 balls to spare.

Game two saw the home side again batting first, and after Lues had once again kicked off proceedings with a brace of wickets, it was a 5 wicket haul from Sebastian de Oliveira which put Balbriggan well on top. Ashish Jain's 31 was the only score in excess of 8 for the batting side, as the other successful bowler was Jordan Hollard, who's 2/17 came in the middle of de Oliveira's fine spell of bowling. Ciaran Gray's 37*, accompanied by 27* from opener Rowe, saw Balbriggan to a facile 9 wicket win with more than 9 overs to spare.

In College Park, the home side batted first and as had been alluded to in our preview, scoring wasn't as easy as it was last weekend. 24 from Rory Betley and 22 from Jack Atkinson the only scores of note as two wickets for each of Brandon Kruger and Tómas Rooney-Murphy helped the visitors restrict Dublin University to just 116/7 in their 20 overs. The response was solid at the outset, however after the loss of Brandon Kruger with the score 55/3, The Hills' scoring rate slowed drastically and wickets fell regularly, with the game coming to a close thanks to a Mikey O'Reilly hat-trick in the 20th over, with The Hills still 20 runs short.

The second game then saw the Students making a near identical score, this time losing one fewer wicket and finishing 116/6, David Vincent's 39 the clear pick of the efforts with the bat as the home side were restricted by two wickets apiece for Sean McNicholl and Brandon Kruger. Andy Kavanagh was the main man with the bat for The Hills in their chase, as he made an unbeaten 42, and was supported by 28 from Kruger in guiding the side to a 6 wicket victory with 8 balls to spare.

GROUP B

In the Phoenix Park, Civil Service batted first as they hosted Clontarf, and a pair of three-fors from Mitchell Thompson and Paul Ryan did most of the damage as the home side were all out for just 71. There were also two wickets for each of Cillian McDonnell and the returning 'Ropu' Islam in a fine all-round effort. The chase was completed with minimal fuss, Eoghan Delany's 38* guiding his team to a 7 wicket win with 6 overs to spare.

The second game in the pair then saw Clontarf batting first, and unbeaten scores of 46 from David Delany supported by 40 from John McNally guided them to a good score of 159/4 from their 20 overs, two wickets for each of Naveed Khan and Aamir Bafanda keeping the hosts in the game. Once again however Service didn't have the firepower to chase down that total, and could manage only 120/9 in their 20 overs. Mubasher Siddique top scoring with 36, whilst Dhiraj Shetty made 30. David Delany the pick of the Clontarf bowlers taking 3/9, whilst debutant Daire Vickers also took 3/20 as the away side ran out 39 run winners.

Meanwhile in Kilcock, the first fixture between Malahide and North Kildare was reduced to 12 overs a side, however it took Malahide just 10.1 to bowl their hosts out for 61, as there were two wickets each for Kelvin Donnelly, Andy Sheridan, Jeremy Martins and Mohit Sane. Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin the mainstay of an 8 wicket win in the chase, making an unbeaten 31 as the visitors cruised home in 5.3 overs.

Game two then saw Malahide batting first, and again McLoughlin-Gavin made 30 at the top of the order, with lower order support from Adam Doyle helping guide the side to 155/7, Doyle finishing unbeaten on 37, whilst there were also 20s from Sheridan and skipper James Newland. The North Kildare chase was reduced to 16 overs, with the target adjusted to 130, however the side was never really in the game as in spite of a spirited effort from Josh Uddin, they lost wickets regularly, Andy Sheridan the pick of the bowlers taking 3/10, as they fell short by 36 runs, Uddin finishing on an unbeaten 48 from just 44 balls.

GROUP C

The first of the two games in Terenure saw the home side batting first, however nobody made it past 17 as they were all out for 71 in the 19th over, Amish Sidhu the pick of the bowlers for the visitors taking 4/10, whilst there were two apiece for Dev Ranolia and Daniel Sugrue. The chase was dominated by 38 from Shane Getkate coming from just 12 balls, guiding his side to an 8 wicket victory with one ball to spare in the Power Play.

The second game was a mirror image, having not featured in game one, Benjamin Dillon took the wickets of each of the Phoenix top three, finishing his four overs with 3/21, before Jinal Khatri who was also drafted in for game two took 4/13 in knocking Phoenix over for 72 this time. A typically belligerent 58* from just 22 balls for Séamus Lynch featured 54 runs in boundaries, as he led the way in a 9 wicket victory in just 6.1 overs.

In Airlie Park meanwhile, game one saw Adamstown all out for 80 inside 16 overs, thanks primarily to 4/15 for Jai Moondra, whilst there were two wickets for each of Mark Tonge, Bilal Azhar and Joey Carroll. Adamstown got off to a flier with the ball, three wickets for Pomin Ponselvan restricting their visitors to 29/5, however an unbeaten 33 from Mark Tonge saw Leinster to a 3 wicket win with 19 balls to spare in the innings.

The second game once again saw the home side batting first, and Sidarth Biju guiding the team to a well below par 89/8 in their 20 overs, Bilal Azhar and Tom Johnson both taking two wickets apiece for the away side. It was a facile chase for Leinster, as Bilal Azhar's 30 played second fiddle to Patrick Lynch's 39 led the away side to a second straightforward victory in the space of 6 hours in Airlie Park.

GROUP D

Our featured action came in Group D as Merrion hosted Rush, the home side's day got off to an excellent start as Stephen Doheny continued his excellent run of form this season with a masterfully compiled 108 from just 52 balls, finding the boundary on 11 occasions, and hitting 6 maximums in guiding his team to 219/3 in 20 overs.

Doheny was supported by 47 from Swapnil Modgill, with whom he shared an opening stand of 106 in the opening 10 overs, whilst Pete Francis also made an unbeaten 47 from just 32 balls in finishing off the innings strongly. Hashir Sultan was the pick of the bowlers for the away side taking 2/34.

Rush started dreadfully, as Tom Stanton knocked over both Nathan McGuire and Sultan in an opening double-wicket maiden to kick off proceedings. Josh Doyle and Nasir Totakhil steadied the ship, making 36 and 27 respectively, however after that pair fell to Max Sorensen in quick succession, only Jarred Barnes' top score of 38 provided any resistance, with the away side all out for 154 in the final over, falling 65 runs short.

Sorensen was the pick of the bowlers for Merrion taking 3/30, whilst there were 2 wickets for each of the aforementioned Stanton and skipper Sam Harbinson in securing the victory.

Game two saw Rush batting first, and this time it was Doyle who fell early as both Totakhil (32) and McGuire (30) got the innings up and running. After a thumping 23 from just 8 balls from Asher Abbasi took the score past 100, wickets began to fall quickly again, this time Hugh Kennedy taking 3/20, whilst Melvin Devaraj took 2/26 in holding the away side to just 135/9.

The chase wasn't without incident, as wickets fell regularly for Merrion, with Rush's spinners in particular bowling very economically, however twenties for Modgill, Harbinson and Doheny got them most of the way to the target. Pete Francis then held his nerve batting down the order, guiding the side to victory with 4 wickets to spare in the final over.

Finally in Sydney Parade, Railway Union batted first in game one and put together a below par 126/7 from their 20 overs, Kenny Carroll top scoring with 28 as 3/21 for Paul Lawson and 2/21 for JJ Garth restricted the visitors' efforts. The chase was dominated by an excellent 23-ball 57 for Garth, which featured 3 fours and 6 sixes, whilst there was support in the form of 33 from Diarmaid Tucker as the 8 wicket win was secured for the hosts with nearly half the innings to spare.

Second time around, Railway fared no better, managing just 110/7, this time thanks to 31 from Ashil Prakash and 30 from Srihan Karpe. Paul Lawson was once again the pick of the bowlers for the home side taking 2/35, with four other bowlers all taking a wicket apiece in a strong all round effort for the home side. The chase was one again straightforward, in spite of a late wobble, as 42 from Fiachra Tucker and 37 from Diarmaid Tucker saw the side to a 5 wicket victory with 33 balls to spare.