LHK INSURANCE ALAN MURRAY CUP PREVIEW – MATCH DAY 2 (JUNE 15TH)

This weekend's LHK Insurance Alan Murray Cup fixtures see 16 teams facing off once again in double headers, and with 7 of the 16 teams kicking off last weekend with two wins from two, there still remains plenty to play for.

This is because, of the teams that did go two from two last weekend, none face off until their double header in two weeks’ time, meaning it’s all to play for this weekend, as any slip ups could see qualification hopes for those in contention go up in flames.

The four sides who do eventually come out on top of their respective groups will qualify for Finals Day of the LHK Insurance Alan Murray Cup, with the two semi-finals and final all being played on July 6th.

This weekend sees Group A feature The Hills visiting Dublin University, whilst Balbriggan make the short trip up to Inch to face North County. In Group B, Clontarf travel to the Phoenix Park to face Civil Service, whilst Malahide have a trip to Kilcock to match up against North Kildare.

Group C sees action in Terenure, where Phoenix are the visitors, whilst Airlie Park plays host to its first LHK Insurance Alan Murray Cup games, as Adamstown welcome Leinster. Finally in Group D, Rush travel to Merrion hoping they can reproduce some of the cricket they played last weekend, which would surely have seen off a lesser side than Pembroke on at least one occasion, whilst Pembroke will be bouncing into their home games against Railway Union, after two excellent performances last weekend.

It’s worth noting that Terenure, Pembroke, Leinster, Balbriggan and Adamstown are all facing All-Ireland Cup refixes on Sunday afternoon, which may well impact player availability as four of those five sides face down their third consecutive scheduled double weekend, whilst both Leinster and Pembroke have Leinster Senior Cup semi-finals to look ahead to on June 23^rd as well.

GROUP A

North County vs Balbriggan

The local derby this weekend sees North County hosting Balbriggan, and with County having kicked off with two straightforward victories over Dublin University last weekend, they’ll be hoping that two more good performances here could put them on the cusp of Finals day. Suliman Safi was in fine nick last weekend, making an excellent unbeaten 116 in our featured midday game as they ran up what, on this season’s form, was an above par 166/4 in College Park. Safi’s strike rate was 184, and in showing how well he batted, the next highest in the team was just 95, indicating just how important he is to the side in this format. Around him the likes of Niall McGovern, Alan Joseph Mathew and even Eddie Richardson are happy to play second fiddle, however if he’s dismissed it will be interesting to see can the rest of the batting order up their boundary count to get themselves up above some competitive scores. Richardson and Abdul Ghaffar’s start to the innings is more important in the T20 format than anything else, and if they are able to continue to restrict sides in the Power Play it gives them some huge momentum, allowing their spinners to then attack through the middle overs by forcing the opposition to play big shots to get rewards, Mathew and Tanvir Hasan were excellent in that regard last weekend, and if Simi Singh’s absence continues they are likely to be just as important once again. Their change seamers last weekend were a slight issue in game one, however came good in game two with Sean Sludds producing an excellent spell, and with Safi’s off-spin also appearing to now be in good order, the home side’s bowling unit is well set to cope with whatever Balbriggan throw at them.

The visitors meanwhile dug out a remarkable one wicket victory in their first game last weekend, before falling in another close game. The totals were quite low considering the high quality of wickets in Jack Harper Park for T20 cricket, with Balbriggan’s top order failing to get going in earnest at all aside from Cameron Rowe’s half-century in game two. They were indebted to an excellent 41 from Dylan Lues to put them in contention for the game they did win, however they’ll be looking for far more from the likes of Chris de Freitas, Farooq Nasr and Greg Ford in their top four, to allow the likes of Lues, Sebastian de Oliveria and Jordan Hollard to finish off their innings strongly, if they are able to get off to a good start and tee those men up to clear the ropes in the last five overs, they will surely be able to manage more than the 137/9 and 143 all out they managed last weekend. It was their skills with the ball that kept them in the game for so long especially in the second fixture, Lues has proven himself to be an excellent T20 bowler, and he along with Nasr produced 8 excellent overs of off-spin second time around that could be invaluable in matching up with the North County spin attack this weekend. Their seamers, featuring Sam Willemse, de Oliveira and Kashif Ali however only bowled 8 over between themselves, and they will need to be much tighter this time around.

Suliman Safi’s runs last weekend were crucial to the North County cause, and he will no doubt be looking to produce another strong effort this weekend, he comes up against the form spinner in the competition in Dylan Lues and will need to get on top of the Balbriggan off-spinner to give his side a chance of capitalising on the Power Play.

KEY BATTLE: Suliman Safi vs Dylan Lues

Dublin University vs The Hills

Up next, The Hills travel to College Park to take on Dublin University, in the knowledge that they could well eliminate their opponents with a win in game one, which would surely hand them a massive psychological advantage for the remainder of the day. The home side suffered two relatively chastening defeats last weekend, however there were some reasons to be optimistic in how they went about the fixtures. Mikey O’Reilly proved a revelation at the top of the order, making 88* and 49 in his two knocks, whilst Nicolaas Pretorius bounced back from a disappointing first knock to make 37 in the second game. These two are likely to be key once again this time around, with the clean ball-striking of Theo Dempsey, Jamie Forbes and Gavin Hoey all being far better suited to batting around a solid base, whilst Matthew Humphreys’ midweek heroics will surely see him given an opportunity to clear the ropes at some stage across these two fixtures. With the ball, the side are full of spin, Hoey’s leg-breaks, the left-arm orthodox of both Forbes and Humphreys and Yash Balasubramaniam’s off-spin give them the potential to bowl 16 out of the 20 overs with pace off the ball, which has proven in no uncertain terms to be the way to go in College Park this season. Their seamers are less consistent, however if O’Reilly returns to the bowling crease they will be able to extract some swing early on, whilst Ben McCabe and Jack Atkinson also offer left-arm seam-up options having both bowled last weekend.

The Hills come into game one knowing that they really need to win both fixtures to keep their qualification hopes alive, however they are without Nicolaj Damgaard which is a double blow to the side, meaning they miss out on his ball-striking at the top of the order, as well as his left-arm spin which would be more than useful in College Park. Their seam bowling is now arguably the Skerries men’s strongest suit, with Sean McNicholl and Tómas Rooney-Murphy both relentless in their line and length, whilst Cian Nulty and Muzamil Sherzad provide the back up to that pair. Febin Manoj’s right-arm spin has performed well enough to see him retaining a place in the side on a relatively regular basis and if he can continue in the vein of form he has shown so far he could find this fixture to be one which suits him. With the bat, Damgaard is a massive loss, however The Hills have unearthed another very clean ball striker in Kuwait international Edson Silva, who bolsters the middle order significantly. That has allowed Brandon Kruger to bat at the top in T20s, whilst Andy Kavanagh and Tómas Rooney-Murphy will also look to contribute in the top 5. Yaseen and Muzamil Sherzad are both well capable of clearing the ropes and along with Cian Nulty, they offer three options that can all help the side to a strong finish with bat in hand.

The shift of Brandon Kruger to the top of the order to take advantage of his clean hitting in the PowerPlay overs is something which The Hills will be hoping can work in their favour this weekend, and with Dublin University likely to open the bowling with pace on from Theo Dempsey, it will be a good chance for the away side to get off to a flying start, if Kruger puts The Hills on the front foot, they could be very difficult to peg back.

KEY BATTLE: Theo Dempsey vs Brandon Kruger

GROUP B

Civil Service vs Clontarf

Civil Service suffered two heavy defeats at the hands of Malahide last weekend, and will be hoping a return to home turf could see them deliver an upset in this pair of fixtures. Their batting unit is full of players well capable of finding the rope regularly and clearing it often, and they will need to do so to put ‘Tarf under pressure. Junaid Altaf, Deepak Jayachandran and Arjun Chandrasekar are three of their bigger hitters that will be taking aim in the PowerPlay overs, however there are plenty of their other big hitters missing, with the likes of Nilesh Joshi, Simranjeet Singh and Binson Thambi all not in the side, which could add more pressure onto the batters already mentioned. With the ball, Mubasher Siddique and Naveed Khan are ever reliable, however there’s no Digamber Mishra who has become their reliable third seamer, and they are also missing all-rounder Asadullah Ahmadzai for the first game of the day which hampers them with both bat and ball. In his absence, Aamir Bafanda will likely take up the primary spinning role.

Clontarf meanwhile are also in something of a pickle with bowling options, they are without Reuben Wilson and Fionn Hand from their regular seaming trio, whilst Ethan Marshall is still on exchange in the UK and Ben McCabe as mentioned earlier is with Dublin University. Their seamers therefore see David Delany joined by ‘Ropu’ Islam, whilst John McNally will play in game 2 to bolster the team with both bat and ball. Paul Ryan and Cillian McDonnell are the spinners in the side and both will have huge roles to play on what is regularly a spin-conducive surface. With the bat, Eoghan Delany, Rahul Dalal and Mitchell Thompson were all in the runs last weekend against North Kildare, and are joined by the returning Bill Coghlan, playing his first game since 2019, whilst coach Andrew Poynter and Henry Thompson make up the remainder of a very strong looking unit on paper at least!

Considering how the fixtures panned out for both sides last weekend, Clontarf’s start with the bat is likely to hold the key in these fixtures. Rahul Dalal looked to find himself in the second game last weekend and will need to be in top form once again this weekend if they are to post big scores, his early battles with Naveed Khan’s new ball spells could see some fireworks.

KEY BATTLE: Naveed Khan vs Rahul Dalal

North Kildare vs Malahide

North Kildare suffered two heavy defeats in the face of Clontarf producing some excellent batting efforts last weekend, and they’ll be hoping their batting unit can produce some better performances than they did last time around in order to put some pressure back onto Malahide. They have plenty of players who can clear the ropes, Waqar Azmat, Abid Taniwal, Josh Uddin and Bakhtyar Nabi to name but a few, and their second effort last weekend saw Badeeu Zaman making a run-a-ball half-century that will surely give him some added confidence. Their batting unit not firing may well ultimately be down to a lack of consistency in their order, there have not been many cases so far this season where the NK line-up has been the same from one game to the next, and perhaps some certainty in that regard could aid them to performing more consistently. With the ball, Husnain Maroof, skipper Imran Ul-Haq and Anees Ahmad join their other all-rounders, Taniwal and Nabi, in providing plenty of variety in the attack. Maroof and Taniwal moving the ball with their left-arm swing, Ul-Haq and Nabi both offering good right-arm spin options, whilst Ahmad has the ability to rush batters occasionally with his right-arm seam. Added to those there’s the likes of Mohammad Zaman and Nazmus Monon who both featured last weekend and there’s clearly plenty of options for skipper Ul-Haq to throw the ball to in order to vary up the attack.

Malahide meanwhile are in good form off the back of two strong performances last weekend, and the T20 format suits the side down to the ground. The last trophy the club won at 1^st team level was the Alan Murray Cup of 2019, and they are if anything now even more suited to the format as a unit. With the bat, Younas Ahmadzai, Ali Frost and Jeremy Martins are all clean hitters of the ball in different unique ways, and with Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin alongside Ahmadzai at the top of the order, he offers them the perfect foil to bat around and potentially produce some big scores. Beyond that four, Matt Ford is one of the survivors from that 2019 team, and along with Andy Sheridan they have a number of players who can finish off innings’ strongly and allow the side to continue getting after the bowling attack right until the 20^th over. Behind the stumps, Matthew Langan returns having missed a number of weeks due to the Leaving Cert exams, and his glovework will be a major boost to the side. With the ball, Kelvin Donnelly will produce movement and bounce early on, along with skipper James Newland, who’s death bowling also sees him regularly pinging the blockhole and makes him very hard to get away. Martins and Sheridan are the two all-rounders in the side and their right arm seamers mean they are both very efficient operators, whilst the spin this week will come from Mohit Sane in the absence of Mike Frost.

North Kildare will desperately need to dismiss Younas Ahmadzai early in the Malahide batting efforts if they are to have a chance of keeping their line-up contained in any way. Abid Taniwal will likely be the man tasked with that assignment and if he can use the new ball to knock his clean-hitting fellow countryman over, it will give North Kildare a big boost.

KEY BATTLE: Abid Taniwal vs Younas Ahmadzai

GROUP C

Adamstown vs Leinster

Airlie Park’s first taste of the Senior ranks sees Adamstown hosting a Leinster side who will be buoyed by two thumping victories over Terenure last weekend, whilst the home side will be looking to bounce back from their own double-dose of defeats. There were some causes for optimism in Adamstown’s batting efforts last weekend against Phoenix, game one saw Kunal Nagare and Aditya Gupta getting them off to a flying start, and if they can do similar at some stage in these two games, it will set things up nicely for the likes of Rohit Gulati, Lucky Sharma and Prabhanshu Kamal to come in after them and produce some decent totals. Later in the innings, Nithin Padmaprabhu threatened to close it out strongly in game one, and he and Vipul Kashyap are two men who could prove crucial in that aspect later in the game. With the ball, Kashyap and Kamal are the two primary spinners, and also the two bowlers with the most experience at this level in the side, whilst right-arm seamer Harshit is another good operator. With the new ball, Chandra Venkataraman and Jibran Shabbir will hope to produce some more controlled starts than what happened last weekend, however the main advantage to the side could well be knowing their ground better than Leinster and ensuring they set their fields accordingly based on the knowledge they’ve gained so far this season.

Leinster meanwhile showed some excellent T20 skills last weekend in their two victories, managing to drastically improve their net run rate while doing so. Their spinners were in excellent form with the ball, Tom Johnson, Avrial Shukla and Tristen de Beer all in the wickets and that will be an aspect that will need to be right on the ball from the outset. Whilst of the seamers, skipper Bilal Azhar was the pick of them in both games, with his left-arm swing causing plenty of problems. Aside from Azhar, Jai Moondra and Kaustabh Apsunde were the two options used, whilst Monil Patels mixture of off-cutters were also utilised in the second half of both fixtures. With the bat, they mixed their options up Monil Patel and Tristen de Beer blitzing a 22 ball 52 run partnership in their first run chase, before Moondra and Patrick Lynch opened proceedings in game two with a 100-run PowerPlay and ultimately 134 off the first 59 balls. With the likes of Joey Carroll, Joe O’Sullivan and Shukla also well capable of putting good bowling to the sword, they have plenty of options which they can turn to at any point in their order.

Considering how important Adamstown’s start was in setting up their first batting effort last weekend, they’ll be hoping to see Aditya Gupta get them off to a good start. Equally, Leinster will be aiming to stunt them at source, and Jai Moondra’s extra pace could well be the perfect antidote to Adamstown’s clean striking opener.

KEY BATTLE: Aditya Gupta vs Jai Moondra

Terenure vs Phoenix

The home side come into the fixture needing to produce two wins to salvage any qualification hopes after last weekend’s two defeats. Their batting line-up whilst potentially not quite set up for T20 games, does feature one of the most destructive batters in the format in the province in Séamus Lynch, and if he sees them off to a good start it would allow for the likes of in-form Henry Dall, Raghav Grover and Dónal Lynch, whilst Sadiq Safi has earned a recall off the back of an excellent 145 for Terenure 2 last weekend. The side features plenty of all-rounders, with Grover and Dall offering seam and spin respectively, whilst Devansh Singh and Jinal Khatri are another pair of spinners who could feature in the top 7. The seam bowling supporting Grover features the ever reliable Dylan Cleary, extra pace of Kripesh Shetty and swing of Nitish Narayanan, who’s Alan Murray Cup debut last weekend saw him taking two wickets in the opening game. Séamus Lynch and Gareth Morgan shared the wicket-keeping duties last weekend and after the teenager was also in the runs last Sunday it will be interesting to see does he once again take the gloves in these fixtures.

Phoenix meanwhile put on two fine batting displays in seeing off Adamstown, Levon Shields was desperately unfortunate to be dismissed for 99 from just 52 balls in game two, however he also followed up with a century on Sunday, showing his form to be no fluke. The likes of Shane Getkate, Tyrone Kane and Johit Munjal are all big hitters of the ball, whilst not many players are in better form than Jack Lalor. Amish Sidhu and James Maginnis were also in the runs in game two, whilst Adam Chester is another clean ball-striker we’re as yet to mention among the plethora of options. With the ball, Sidhu has been in excellent form bowling in the Power Play, with more left-arm spin in the form of Dev Ranolia. The seam options include Ash Bain, Kane, Getkate, whilst Daniel Sugrue took the new ball in game two last weekend, and Maginnis chipped in with 3/18 as well. Given the number of players used between the two games, it’s hard to predict with certainty what 11 will take the field for Phoenix, however what is clear is they have plenty of options to turn to with bat and ball, and plenty of flexibility within their batting order, which makes them an extremely difficult opposition to plan against.

Séamus Lynch’s ball striking set Terenure up really well in last weekend’s second game and considering his particularly strong record in T20 cricket, he’s once again the prized wicket for the away side, they will likely look to match him up against Amish Sidhu’s left-arm spin and if he can dismiss his Leinster Lightning team-mate it will give Phoenix a great chance of being on top of Terenure from the outset.

KEY BATTLE: Séamus Lynch vs Amish Sidhu

GROUP D

Merrion vs Rush

Rush played some fine cricket last weekend in their brace of defeats to Pembroke, however they ultimately came up short. Their batting in particular shone through in a big way in the second of the two fixtures, Josh Doyle appearing to have found his feet in a big way with his second century in the space of a week on the ground coming with 110 from just 57 balls. He’s joined at the top of the order by Nathan McGuire, who’s clean striking makes him a player feared by most oppositions in this format. Behind that pair, Nasir Totakhil has seen his ability to clear the boundaries move him up to number three in this format, whilst Hashir Sultan and Rahmat Sahaq are two more players who are well capable of clearing the ropes in the middle overs. With the ball, skipper Jarred Barnes leads the seamers along with Asher Abbasi, with Sultan also appearing at the bowling crease last weekend. Their spinners however are their real trump card and each have been mentioned already, Doyle and McGuire are both off-spinners who can tie batsmen down well, but the real class angle is Totakhil’s left-arm spin which is both a wicket-taking threat and is able to keep things tight when needed too, never was that more evident than last weekend’s second game, where his 4 overs cost just 6.5 apiece, whilst the remainder of the spinners bowled 5.3 overs for 95 runs!

Merrion meanwhile won two games, one batting first and one second last time around, showing their class in the second game in particular, as Pete Francis dug the side out from a potentially tricky start to compile an unassailable total. Swapnil Modgill and Stephen Doheny are both excellent stroke players at the top of the order who can quickly take the game away from the opposition without ever appearing to change gears, whilst Adam Rosslee is another excellent ball-striker in the middle order. Sam Harbinson and Mike Lewis were both in the runs in game two last time around, and they’re another pair of batters who can clear the ropes with great frequency at the back-end of an innings. John Anderson is likely to return to the side for this fixture, having produced an excellent century last Sunday. With the ball, Melvin Devaraj has been in fine form this season, whilst Harbinson’s bowling has also been in good order producing some really strong spells, not least his 2/8 in game two last weekend. Max Sorensen and Hugh Kennedy are the other seamers in a well-rounded side. Their spinners are led by Tom Stanton, who opened the bowling in both instances last weekend, whilst Danny Forkin’s left-arm spin also saw him cleaning up the tail in quick time and that form could be invaluable against this Rush outfit, Modgill’s offies are the third option in the side that Harbinson can turn to if needed.

Considering how integral he was to their batting efforts over the last two weekends, Rush will be desperate to see Josh Doyle putting together another good innings or two in these fixtures, if he can do so it will give them an excellent chance of out-pointing Merrion with the bat. The home side will be hoping that Tom Stanton can tie him down early in the piece to keep Rush’s PowerPlay as quiet as possible and give the home side the upper hand in the tie.

KEY BATTLE: Tom Stanton vs Josh Doyle

Pembroke vs Railway Union

Pembroke’s two wins last weekend were propelled by an incredible string of performances by their skipper Nick Stapleton, the Australian took 2/12 and followed up with an unbeaten 75 from just 39 balls, before taking 3/28 and rounding off his afternoon with 112* from just 59 balls in game two. That sort of scintillating form is exactly what his side will be hoping to see continue into this weekend, with support coming from Tim Tector, JJ Garth and the returning Jack Tector and Fiachra Tucker with the bat, whilst with the ball Olly Riley and Byron McDonough are the seam up options to lead the line with, alongside Paul Lawson’s off-breaks which lead the way in the absence of Gavin Hoey, who plays for Dublin University in this competition. Zac McCabe was another man in the runs last weekend and may well have earnt another chance, whilst the likes of Joe Prendergast and Danny Hogan are another pair of all-rounders in the middle order that can clear the ropes.

Railway meanwhile will have been disappointed to have been beaten so comprehensively in their two fixtures last weekend, and will be looking bounce back, with a loss in game one in all likelihood seeing them eliminated from the competition. Kenny Carroll is back at the top of the order having returned in the first game last weekend, they’ll be hoping to see him to good effect. Ashil Prakash, Srihan Karpe and Hedayat Khogiani make up the main bulk of their batting group along with Carroll, with Liam McCarthy missing this fixture. Fakhar Zaman and Zaman Safi are the two players who will look to clear the ropes later in the innings to give the side a good finish to their innings. With the ball, in McCarthy’s absence, Sean O’Brien leads the way along with former ‘Broke man Piyush Sharma and the already mentioned Zaman Safi, whilst the spin in the side features another former Pembroke player in Arshad Safi who’s leggies can be problematic for batters, whilst Fakhar Zaman’s off-spin can also prove difficult for batters to get away.

After a quiet weekend last weekend, Tim Tector is likely to be looking to continue his fine run of form in Sydney Parade in these fixtures, that will mean that Sean O’Brien becomes the key bowler for Railway Union, as if Tector gets the side off to a flying start, Pembroke could be long out of sight before the visitors have had a chance to reel them back in.

KEY BATTLE: Tim Tector vs Sean O’Brien