Three Leinster sides make it through to the RSA Irish Senior Cup semi-finals. Clontarf, on back of another awesome batting display by Andrew Poynter, overwhelmed St Johnston and go into the SFs as the highest ranking team.
They are likely to face a serious challenge for the title from North Down who beat Coleraine by five wickets, chasing down a 300 run score to win the game. Leinster teams have dominated the Irish Cup in recent years, winning on eight occasions over the past 10 years, but North Down have a real chance to take the trophy North this year.
Pembroke are another team that are running into form at the right time. Another hard fought match against Merrion saw them come back from 65/5 to reach their target of 206 in the second last over and win by three wickets. Pembroke have produced a number of very good team performances with bat and ball, backed up by excellent fielding in recent weeks. This time it was half centuries from Lorcan Tucker and Barry McCarthy that swung the match decisively in their favour.
The final team to make it through are The Hills who beat Railway in a well contested low scoring quarter final. The strength of The Hills bowling attack was once again in evidence with four players taking wickets [Manu Kumar 4/15] and ten overs from Nazeer Shoukat at a cost of only seven runs. But their batting frailties were once again exposed in getting home in the last over by two wickets. The Hills league position would suggest that they are the weakest team of the four remaining but they have the experience [winning the competition in 2012] and the big match players and could still spring a surprise.
The semi-final will be held on 2nd August and the draw will take place next Tuesday.