PEMBROKE TOP PREMIER LEAGUE AS RUSH ON THE BRINK OF CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE - AUGUST 31ST ROUND-UP!

This afternoon's cricket saw some excellent fixtures played out across the province, none more so than in the Phoenix Park, where the home side have once again edged a tight game against Merrion, this time to produce a major upset in the league standings. That's because Pembroke's incredibly easy victory against Balbriggan now sees them top of the table, whilst Clontarf have confirmed they'll finish 5th with a victory over Malahide.

Meanwhile in the Championship, Rush have put themselves right on the brink of title glory with a win over North County, The Hills delivered a hammering to Terenure, as did Railway Union to Cork County, whilst North Kildare recorded a win over Civil Service.

PREMIER LEAGUE

Starting off with the first result of the day, Pembroke completed their victory over Balbriggan by 8 wickets by 3:30pm. Bowling first it was the skipper Nick Stapleton who led the way, taking 4/35, whilst there was 2/19 for Byron McDonough. Gavin Hoey was once again firing, taking 3/22 in rolling the 'Brigg out for just 113. JJ Garth was to the fore, striking an unbeaten run-a-ball 51 in the chase, as his opening partner Tim Tector also got a rapid 39 from just 23 deliveries, in seeing the side to an 8 wicket win with 33 overs left to bat.

In Castle Avenue, the home side batted first, and thanks to each of numbers 2-6 making in excess of 20, pushed themselves up to 223/6 in their 50 overs. Fionn Hand top scored with an unbeaten 62, whilst David Delany also kept up his form with 44 at number 3. There were then two wickets apiece for Cillian McDonnell, Fionn Hand and Yash Bala, as Malahide were kept to just 147 all out inside 41 overs, meaning a 76 run win for the home side.

In the Phoenix Park, Merrion batted first, and they put together a reasonable looking 219/9 in their 50 overs. John Anderson once again top scored with 75, whilst there was good support from Sam Harbinson, who made 45, and Swapnil Modgill with 36. Tyrone Kane the pick of the home bowlers with 4/45, whilst there were two apiece for Jack Lalor and Dev Ranolia. Phoenix's chase went right to the wire, with several batters getting in however just Amish Sidhu passing 27 in his top-score of 40, when he fell however, Phoenix found themselves 9 down, only for Theo Dempsey and Abhishek Negi to nervelessly add the final 10 runs needed for victory and see the side to a 1 wicket victory in the penultimate over.

CHAMPIONSHIP

In our game of the day, The Hills delivered a comprehensive thrashing to Terenure, with the home side producing yet another dismal performance with the bat that sees them now firmly rooted in the bottom two of the league. The away side won the toss and elected to bat first, however even with Brandon Kruger's quick start, Raghav Grover's two early wickets kept Terenure in the game. Kruger passing 50 shortly after losing their second wicket.

An excellent spell of bowling however, saw Jinal Khatri picking up 3/27 in his 10 overs, and restricting the away side again, before Tómas Rooney-Murphy fought back hard, making 52 of his own to guide the side right the way up to 199, with the final wickets falling courtesy of a brilliant spell by Kripesh Shetty who took 3/24.

Terenure's chase began slowly, losing Henry Dall in the third over before some early resistance was ended with the score on 31 and the dismissal of Séamus Lynch. Cian Nulty was bowling an excellent spell down the hill for the away side at this stage, and when he got his second breakthrough to dismiss Sid Nair, it became clear that his spell was going to be crucial, picking up his third wicket with the score on just 44.

Gethin Kelleher briefly resisted, making 20, however another string of tame dismissals saw Sean McNicholl taking four wickets including that of Kelleher and Dónal Vaughan, finishing with figures of 4/14. Nulty finished off his 10 overs with 4/32 having dismissed Shetty, and whilst Dylan Cleary blazed four boundaries in a counter-attacking 16, he was the last wicket to fall to Peter Stead, as the debutant sealed a 108 run victory for his side, and condemned Terenure's final league standings to the bottom 2 to round off a catastrophic season for the Dublin 6 outfit.

In North County, the home side batted first and made 158 all out, with John Devane top scoring with another good innings of 59. Nasir Totakhil the pick of the bowlers for Rush with 3/35, whilst there were two apiece for Jarred Barnes, Alex Neary and Allan Eastwood. Rush didn't quite march to victory, however scores of 43 from Prasanth Viswanath, accompanied by 29 from Nathan McGuire and 23* for Totakhil guided them to a 4 wicket victory and put them within touching distance of the league title.

In Park Avenue, half centuries for Hedayat Khogiani and Kevin O'Brien guided Railway to 250/9 in their 50 overs, with Ashil Prakash also contributing 45. Sam Fenn the pick of the Cork County bowlers taking 3/44. Cork County were never ahead of the game, and even in spite of Liam McCarthy bowling just three deliveries, could manage only 152 all out, Nabeel Anjum top scoring with 35 as there were two wickets each for Ashil Prakash, Sumit Kumar and Zaman Safi in securing the 98 run win for the home side.

Finally, North Kildare produced a fine run chase to beat Civil Service. The away side batting first and making 212 all out thanks mainly to 66 from Arjun Chandrasekar and 32 for Vipul Kashyap, with Bakhtyar Nabi and Husnain Maroof both taking 2/39. Half-centuries for Abid Taniwal and Nurulain Boda however did most of the heavy lifting for the home side, as they ran out three wicket winners and pushed themselves ever closer to Cork County in 5th position in the table.