Leaving aside the disappointments for individual sides, has there ever been a better start to the league season? All eight teams scored in excess of 200 runs, all games were competitive with a couple going down to the wire and there were a number of outstanding individual performances.
Perhaps the first thing to note about the results is that all four D4 sides lost. Is this happenchance or are we seeing confirmation of a shift in the strength of Leinster club cricket away from the South side clubs. It would certainly be counted unwise to read to much into one set of results. But then again wisdom is not a required attribute of sports commentary. Something perhaps to look out for over the rest of the season.
Clontarf and Merrion played out what from a distance [Spain] and through the lens of the Match Centre looked like a tremendous match. Over 500 runs scored in a first round encounter in April and it comes down to a 2 run win for Clontarf on the second last ball. It is not so many years ago that Clontarf’s score of 263/7 would have been seen as a sure victory at any time of the season, let alone in the first game. With Bill Coughlan [70], Eoghan Delany [52] and Robert Forrest [53] all making 50s [Delany and Forrest put on a century 6th wicket partnership at better than a run a ball] it was a really strong all round batting performance.
At the midway stage there would have been long odds against Merrion getting near that score but with significant contributions from Tyrone Kane [59], John Anderson and, down the order, Tom Stanton it ended up with only two runs between the teams.
Clontarf will obviously be the happier of the two having managed to secure the close victory but Merrion will take heart from a brave performance and one with a team that they would hope can be strengthened during the year.
The highest aggregate scores of the day was in the match between The Hills and Pembroke where the latter made 299/6 in the first innings and then saw The Hills reach the 300 mark for the loss of five wickets in the second last over. It was an excellent debut for Pembroke’s Australian overseas player Daniel Solway who fell just short of a century [91]. He was well supported by Danny Hogan [79] and Fiachra Tucker and Jack Balbirnie down the order. But the performance of the day [and of the whole round] must surely have been that of The Hill’s Danish import Freddie Klokker who batted through the innings for an undefeated 161*. But even with this massive individual contribution it was a long chase that at times looked beyond The Hills and it took better than a run a ball efforts by Max Sorensen [51] and Mark Dwyer to seal the victory in the second last over.
It was a different sort of game in the Park. Railway batted first and were soon in trouble – at one stage being four wickets down for 61 – and it looked like they would struggle posting a good score. But the first four wickets did not include that of skipper Kenny Carroll [107] who went on to record the first century of the season. Perhaps in retrospect given the high scores around the grounds the 244/9 in 50 overs was a little light; but it was the first game of the season, Phoenix were the newly promoted side and the momentum had swung towards Railway. Of course no better players than Reinhardt Strydom [52] and Nicolaas Pretorius [51] to shift the momentum back again.. An opening partnership of 81 in quick time took the game away from Railway. Masud Ahmed [66*] coming in first down made sure there were no unwelcome surprises and there were solid contributions from Sean Anderson and Adam Chester. Phoenix ended up winners by five wickets with over seven overs to go.
The final game was between North County and YMCA at Inch. YMCA batted first and got a reasonable start thanks to Tom Fisher [52] but suffered a middle order collapse until Sam Murphy came in to shore up the innings with an unbeaten 52. The total of 223/7 was the lowest of the day but with their varied attack YMCA were certainly in with a chance. Wickets fell regularly but Adam Coughlan [68] provided stability to the top order and the game decisively turned when Eddie Richardson and Conor Armstrong came together and put on 36 for the sixth wicket. North County got home by three wickets in the 45th over.
It was a great series of matches. Of course it would be unwise to make too much of just one round of matches. But given the dominance of batting over bowling one could certainly put forward the proposition that the determination of the league title may well depend on which team can find a couple of bowlers who can regularly deliver 10 overs each for less than 30 runs. For all the bowlers yesterday who bowled 8 or more overs only three had an economy rate of less than 3 - Conor Sheil, 9/19 and Adam Coughlan, 10/26 [NC} and Naseer Shoukat, 10/25 [The Hills].
On the overall performances during the day, the greatest soul searching will obviously fall to the losing sides. Merrion’s batting line-up is not as strong as last year but its most pressing need is to find a way to reduce the scoring rate when in the field. All but one of their bowlers went for more than 5 per over and none for less than 4. YMCA will be concerned to strengthen their middle which looked vulnerable. Railway have well known match winners but need to get more out of the rest of the team. And Pembroke will be wondering how they lost a match after scoring 299 runs. They can reasonably put in down to an excellent individual effort, which may not happen again all season, but must still be hoping for more from their bowling attack.
All in all a great first day of the season. There were a total of 2,062 runs scored. Certainly a record for an opening round and likely [someone else can check] the highest aggregate in the history of the competition. A great compliment to the groundsmen around Leinster to prepare wickets of such quality so early in the season. Average runs scored per wicket taken – 37.5. Who would want to be reincarnated as a bowler these days.
And a final word. Many thanks to the scorers who despite a few gremlins in the system managed to keep the live scores rolling and in all cases uploaded the full match scorecard before the end of the day