Division 1: Round 2 [all matches start 12.30]
Phoenix v YMCA
Cork County v Clontarf
Pembroke v Leinster
North County v The Hills
There is a sense of the the phoney war about the first two rounds of the league. No sooner have these matches been played then there is a two week gap [except for Merrion v DU on 14th May] as representative and Irish Senior Cup matches take precedence. So for most clubs the 20th May [which seems a long way off] will feel like the start of a new league campaign and provides the opportunity for a re-boot. But getting off to a bad start with two losses is still something very much to be avoided.
The game between Phoenix and YMCA therefore takes on an added significance - one of the two teams will end up without a win after two rounds. YMCA will go into the match buoyed by the return of two players away on Ireland Wolves duty - Simi Singh and captain Jack Tector. They also bring in Asher Abassi for his first game of the season. This will bring some added experience to their bowling which had such a hard time at the hands of Eddie Richardson last week. Phoenix make one change with Graham Morris making his first appearance of the season. Phoenix will be looking for more runs from their top order this week and hope that Ari Karvelas carries forward his excellent form with bat and ball from last week.
YMCA J Tector, T Fisher, S Singh, O Gunning, S Murphy, H Tector, S McCauley, R Jones, J Parkinson, A Abassi, S Streek.
Phoenix: N. Pretorius (wk) ©, R. Strydom, A Karvelas , T. Anders, R Anders, B White, A Brawders, A Chester, R Kelly, R Lawrence, G Morris
Cork County will need to improve their all-round performance if they are to overcome a Clontarf team that has come through a tough match against Phoenix and is strengthened by the introduction of their overseas player Brad Barnes, a wicket-keeper bat from South Africa, and the return of David Delany from Wolves tour. Conor Kelly and Andrew Poynter are still unavailable.
For Cork, Dairmuid Carey, who missed out last week through illness, makes his debut and is joined in the team against Clontarf by Brian Kellegher in changes from last week.
Clontarf: J Morrissey, Bill Coghlan, D Gallagher, S Islam, W Azmat, S Dutt, D Delany, J Astaf, R Forrest, J Mooney, B Barnes.
Cork: S Grobler, M Bauer, B Kellegher, C Hassett, Q Butt, M Jutt, R Durity, D Carey, I Coleman, G King, A Saddique
Pembroke had a narrow loss against The Hills last week and will be keen to test a Leinster side that had an easy win against Cork. For Leinster Criag Mallon comes into the team and it will be interesting to see how they fare against one of the fancied sides in D1. In the one change for Pembroke, Josh Little returns after being away with the Ireland Wolves.
Leinster: JP O’Dwyer, D Coad, A Anwar, G Delany, J Carroll, C Janik, J Brown, B, Azhar, I.O’Herlihy, S, Bahadur, C.Mallon
Pembroke Lawson P, Balbirnie A, Balbirnie J, Cutler N, Garth JJ, Hogan D, Hopkins R, Lawson T, Little J, Murphy D, Tucker F.
The pick of the weekend matches must be the local derby between North County and The Hills. On top of the normal rivalries, both teams won last weekend and look strong enough to compete for the championship title. North County have nine of the team from last week with Anthony Mooney and Safrar Ali coming into the team.
North County: Jamie Grassi(WK) Tomas Sheil, Andrew Sheridan, Jonathan Andrews, Eddie Richardson(C), Adam Coughlan, Conor Sheil, Safdar Ali, Cian Mulvaney, Craig May, Anthony Mooney
The Hills: No team
Division 2: Round 2 [matches start 12.30 except early start at Malahide]
Malahide v Railway Union [11.00]
Dublin University v North Kildare
Rush v Terenure
Merrion v Balbriggan
The game between Railway Union and Malahide could be a tense affair today. Both teams have realistic ambitions for promotion and the outcome of the game today could prove important at the end of the season.The overseas player for Railway is still awaited but there are recalls for Ciaran Diveney, Racket Gaur, Robin Russell and Saad Ullah. Malahide will be glad to have their overseas player from New Zealand, Sean Davey, available for the match.
Railway: K Carroll, A Stils, P Duffy, A Hafiz, M Tariq, R Gaur, R Russell, S Ullah, Hamza Mann, C Disney and E Grehan.
Malahide: Alan Reynolds, James Newland, Fintan McAllister, Callum Riches, Keith Reynolds, Arjun Muntha, Cameron Shoebridge, Peter Chase, Neil Boyne, Danny O'Shea, Sean Davey.
Trinity had a good win over Balbriggan in the first round and will be hoping for a second against North Kildare in College Park. But after their success against Railway, North Kildare have shown what they are capable of and know how important the double-pointer is. Isobel Joyce is unavailable for Trinity but otherwise the students welcome back Lorcan Tucker after missing their first game while on tour. North Kildare have the same team as last week.
Trinity W von Behr, M Hogan, L Tucker, J Dascombe, G Dockrell, Matt Strong, Mark Strong, M Sane, G Howell, C Hoey, N Hunt.
NK: Neil Vorster, Sean Dalton, Clint Auret, Manjeet Singh, Imran ul-Haq, Josh Uddin, Robert Neavyn, Mathew Auret, Tom Satchwell, Paul Ryan, Wasif Ali
Rush v Terenure Another contest in which one of the combatants will go into the next round without a win. Very difficult to assess form - both teams had their chances last weekend but in the end fell someway short. Terenure are missing Conor Mullen [work commitments] and Jamie Smith [injury]. Donal Lynch and Malik Hussain replace them. Rush field the same team as last week.
Terenure : D van Zyl, A Shah, C Morgan, Diarmuid Lynch, Donal Lynch, K MacDonald, M Cotter, M Arshad, M Hussain, S Ramnathpur, Y Cheema
Rush: L Jansen (C), Neil Rock (WK),, Saadat (Tipu) Gull, Shahid Iqbal, Sean Monks, Stephen Doheny, Dean Brogan, Allan Eastwood, Aaron McGuire, Alex Neary, Daniel Coffey
And finally, perhaps the most interesting name to appear on any team sheet this weekend, Ed Joyce plays has last game for Merrion since 2000 [his last club game was in 2001 for Dublin University]. He is joined in a strong looking Merrion side by Tyrone Kane [back from Wolves tour] and Max Neville [returning from injury]. There is also a place for Vikas Dhiman who gets the call after his century for Merrion 2nd XI v Pembroke IIs. Balbriggan have one change from last weekend, with Shameen Ahmed coming in for Farooq Nasr. who is unavailable.
Balbriggan: D Harper, E Ahmed, A Harper, T McGrath, A Keefe, C Fletcher, C Nulty, M Ziq, K Ali, M Aziz, S Ahmad.
Merrion: D Joyce, E Joyce, J Anderson, S Stanton, T Stanton, J Blakeney, M Neville, M Lewis, T Kane, V Dhiman, J Brown.