George Dockrell - who leads Leinster v North County today

After a short break the Premier League returns this weekend with the fifth round of matches. In the ‘Match of the Day’ the leaders Merrion take on third placed Clontarf in Castle Avenue. Merrion are still coming down from the high of their dramatic last ball victory in the Irish Senior Cup but it will be very different conditions away from the cauldron of Donemana. Merrion have a well balanced side this season with a strong seam attack that will test a Clontarf batting order that has relied heavily on overseas player Obus Pienaar. Both teams are at close to full strength with only Andrew Poynter missing for Clontarf.

Merrion: Dom Joyce [C], Patrick Tice [W], John Anderson, Tyrone Kane, Tom Stanton, Jack Carty, Poonish Mehra, Michael Lewis, JJ Walsh, Max Neville, Vikas Dhiman.

Clontarf: Joe Morrissey [C], Robert Forrest [W], Declan Gallagher, Shariful Islam, Waqar Azmat, Obus Pienaar, David Delany, Conor Kelly, Sameer Dutt, Bill Coghlan, Asim Nazir,

In the second game YMCA make the short journey to Sydney Parade to take on Pembroke. YMCA are second in the league and have had a good start to the season. Perhaps a little surprising they hold two of the top three bowling spots with Jarred Barnes on 12 wickets and Simi Singh on 10. They will certainly be looking for further success against a Pembroke batting order that has failed more than once this season. YMCA welcome back PJ Moor to the team for his first game of the season.

YMCA: Jack Tector [C], Sam Murphy [W], Oliver Gunning, Simi Singh, Harry Tector, Bobby Gamble, Jarred Barnes, PJ Moor, Asher Abbassi, Aviral Shukla James Parkinson.

Pembroke: Fiachra Tucker [C], Theophilus Lawson [W], Diarmaid Tucker, Paul Lawson, Josh Little, Jack Balbirnie, Andy Balbirnie, JJ Garth, Alex Ridley, Gavin Hoey, Conor Mullen.

The current champions Leinster are at the wrong end of the table coming off two heavy defeats in the last two rounds. They probably could have done without an away fixture at Inch where North County are always difficult to beat. But Leinster have a good record away to North County winning 2 out of 3 league fixtures since 2011.

North County: Niall McGovern [C], Jamie Grassi [W], Malcolm Nofal, Jonathan Andrews, Tomas Sheil, Adam Coughlan, Conor Sheil, Sean Kingston, Cian Mulvaney, Safdar Ali, Eddie Richardson.

Leinster: George Dockrell [C], Ian O'Herlihy [W], Gareth Delany, Joe Carroll, Michael Hogan, Saqib Bahadur, Bilal Azhar, Fionn O’Sullivan, Finn Conaty, Anees Ahmed, Monil Patel.

The final game is in The Park between Phoenix and The Hills. The visitors bring a strong side which perhaps unexpectedly finds itself under some pressure and needs a win. Phoenix have had an up and down season so far. They have come out on top in a couple of close fought matches and will be keen to put their T20 loss during the week to Pembroke behind them. But they are missing their main run getter Brad Kneebone.

Phoenix: Tom Anders [C], Sinesipho Tsotsa [W], Ian Anders, Alex Karvelas, Rory Anders, Reinhardt Strydom, Ben White, James Maginnis, Fletcher Coutts, Adam Chester, Shazaib Ahmed,

The Hills: Max Sorensen [C], Mark Donegan [W], Albert van der Merwe, Sean Terry, Nicolaas Pretorius., Tomas Rooney Murphy, Andrew Kavanagh, Harry Archer, Luke Clinton, Daya Singh, Nazeer Shoukat.