Saqib Bahadur batting for Leinster against Railway in the Cup [3rd June]
This time of the years matches tend to pile up as rounds of cups and leagues fold in on each other. Today we have the fifth round of the OC [though most of the 4th Round has still to be completed as re-fixed matches].
The added complication today is that Leinster Lightning commences a 3D game in Stormont against the Northern Knights. The pressure on players, the need for rest days and the direct clash of fixtures in a crowded schedule are increasingly having an impact on the club game. Decisions later this month on Ireland’s future test status may bring forward the time when clubs will have to make strategic decisions about how they cope in this new environment. These decisions could have a major impact on the promotion of youth cricket in clubs, the recruitment of overseas and local players, and the financial stability of clubs. The questions on where we are going to find the required number of umpires and scorers, not to mention, grounds willing to host additional representative matches, have yet to be answered. Today is a small sign of things to come.
And back to the cricket. In D1 there are four matches all starting at 13.00:
YMCA v Cork County
Clontarf v Pembroke
Leinster v The Hills
North County v Phoenix
A crucial game for both clubs at Claremont Ave. Neither team has a win yet in the league and are obviously keen to address this failing today. In normal circumstances one would point to Cork’s poor travel record and underwhelming performances this year to make the home side clear favourites. But with YMCA missing key players, Simi Singh and Jack Tector with the Lightning and Bobby Gamble and Sam Murphy also unavailable, the visitors have an opportunity to cause an upset. There are debuts for Jacques Zaayman and Tim Tector for YMCA. For Cork, Hassell and Bauer return.
Cork: S. Grobler [C], R. Durity , I. Coleman, C. Hassett, G. King, M. Bauer, S. Wattoo, K. Bray, D. Carey , Q. Butt, A. Hameed
YMCA: H Tector [C], T Fisher , J Parkinson, O Gunning, J Zaayman, R Jones, S McCauley, T Tector, S Streek, A Shukla, A Lewis.
The leaders Clontarf take on Pembroke for their first game of the weekend with a near full strength team [Ropu Islam is unavailable]. Pembroke come into the match off an excellent and hard fought win in the cup v Balbriggan. But the overall batting and bowling strength of Clontarf will be a massive step up for them and their team is still coming together.
Pembroke: Lawson P [C], Balbirnie J, Cutler N, Garth JJ, Hoey B, Hogan D, Hopkins R, Lawson T [W], Little J, Tucker F, Tucker D.
Clontarf: Joe Morrissey [C], David Delany, Declan Gallagher, Bill Coghlan, Waqar Azmat, Sameer Dutt,, Andrew Poynter, Conor Kelly, Robert Forrest, John Mooney, Brad Barnes
Leinster and The Hills had very different outcomes on Saturday in the cup. Leinster will have to put aside their disappointment in losing to Railway and be on top form to hold a powerful team from The Hills. Apart from a hiccup in a T20 re-fix v Phoenix, The Hills have looked like a serious contender for the title since the start of the season. It is presumed that they will be missing Albert van der Merve [as Coach of the Lightning] for the game. Leinster are without Gareth Delany [also up north].
Leinster: C. Mallon [C], D Coad, J Carroll, A Anwar, C Janik, JP O’Dwyer, Ian O’Herlihy [W], P. Byrne, S. Bahadur, Jaydn Brown, B Azhar.
The final game sees North County take on Phoenix. Again the team had differing fortunes in the cup, but North County will have taken much from their very exciting run chase. Going into today’s match NC will be without Eddie Richardson and while they are by no means a one dimensional bowling attack his presence will be missed against a Phoenix batting line-up that has been growing in confidence all season. Phoenix have picked the same team that achieved their exciting cup win v Malahide.
Phoenix: Nicolaas Pretorius [C/W], Reinhardt Strydom, Robin Kelly, Rory Anders, Adam Chester, Ari Karvelas, Tom Anders, Ben White, Ian Anders, Gordy Millar, Graham Morris.
The four matches in the Russel Court Division II [which all start at 13.00] are:
Merrion v North Kildare
Balbriggan v Terenure
Rush v Malahide
Dublin University v Railway Union
Important games across the board today. The double pointer between Railway and DU is probably the last chance for Railway to get back into promotion contention while for the students it is another cup final - a loss will make it difficult of them to challenge for honours. DU are mission key players in George Dockrell and Lorcan Tucker.
Despite losing on Saturday, Malahide have generally performed well this season and will be anxious to see off a Rush side which is actively competing for promotion. There are many possible permutations and it is still early in the season, but many see the two teams competing for one promotion spot. Today will give a good indication of which team is the more likely.
Balbriggan performed very well against Pembroke on Saturday and if their batting continues in the same vein it may provide difficult for Terenure to contain. Alex Matthews comes into the Terenure side and Dan van Zyl returns.
The final match see Merrion take on North Kildare at Anglesea Road. In normal circumstances the expectations would be that the all-round strength of the home side would determine the outcome. But with four players on representative duty, today will test the strength of Merrion’s reserves and give NK a window of opportunity.
Rush: Lynal Jansen [C], Neil Rock [WK], Saadat (Tipu) Gull, Allan Eastwood, Shahid Iqbal, Daniel Coffey, Shahrukh Shamim, Aaron McGuire, Alex Neary, Jack McGee, Nathan McGuire.
Malahide: A Reynolds, J Newland, F McAllister, C Riches, N Boyne, K Reynolds, D O'Halloran, SJ De Klerk, D O'Shea, S Davey, M Hingston.
Terenure: Conor Mullen [C], Ajaz Shah, Alex Matthews*, Jeremy Bray, Kenny McDonald, Michael Cotter, Mohammad Arshad, Subby Ramnathpur, Yasir Cheema, Dan Van Zyl, Diarmuid Lynch.
Railway: Kenny Carroll [C], Rachit Gaur, Abdullah Hafeez, Ranil Dhammika, Robin Russell, Saad Ullah, Mo Tariq, Ciaran Divney [W], Hamza Maan, Eoghan Grehan, AN Other
Merrion: D Joyce [C], J Blakeney, M Lewis, J Brown, P Tice, T Stanton, S Stanton, N Sharma, V Dhiman, B Lakhotia, AN Other.
N Kildare: Neil Vorster [C], Josh Uddin, Sean Dalton, Manjeet Singh, Tom Satchwell, Imran Ul-Haq, Paul Ryan, Robert Neavyn, Mathew Auret, Clint Auret, Wasif Ali
Trinity: Will von Behr [C], Josh Dascombe, Isobel Joyce, Conor Hoey, Michael Hogan, Niall Hunt, Mohit Sane, Matthew Strong, Garin Howell, Mark Strong, Tom Gibbs**
*On debut. **First game of season
The weather of course may have a big say over the cricket today. The forecast seems to have improved - whether the weather does remains to be seen. According to the Dublin regional forecast from Met Eireann - we can expect some bright or sunny spells but overall a good deal of cloud and while many areas will have a mainly dry day, scattered showers will occur. So pretty much covers any eventuality.