The curtailment of the 2020 season produced an opportunity for clubs in the Premier League and Championship to have a second crack at the Leinster Senior Cup format which had proved to be a big hit with the players in the 2019 season. Even though it was played in the shortened T20 format, it still produced some excellent cricket and an overall competitive competition.
We start our review of the season with Group A of the LHW Financial Planning Senior League Cup, this group was the smaller of the two, with just 7 sides competing in it and contained Premier League sides; Phoenix, Pembroke, Merrion and Leinster, and representing the Championship; Rush, North Kildare and Dublin University.
Week 1 of the season opened up with three victories for Premier League sides, as Merrion beat North Kildare by 86 runs, having scored 167/4, thanks in the main to John Anderson’s 81 there was then four wickets to seam bowler Hugh Kennedy which helped restrict the Kilcock side to just 76/7 in response. The Hogan brothers propelled Dublin University to 104, but that wasn’t enough to stop Phoenix defeating them by 6 wickets thanks to a controlled 46* from new-man Jeremy Lawlor. In the game between the two Premier League sides Pembroke saw off Leinster by 8 wickets, after a good start for Leinster, reaching 80/2, teenager Scott Ruttle produced a 4 wicket spell which reeled them in and left Pembroke chasing just 125. An undefeated 51 from Theo Lawson, who was also deputising with the gloves, alongside skipper Fiachra Tucker’s 43* made light work of the chase, taking just 17.3 overs to seal the victory.
Week two saw Rush enter the fray, having been idle in the first game week due to the uneven numbers and they played out one of the games of the competition against Leinster at Observatory Lane. Having posted just 90, thanks in the main to some late Jarred Barnes resistance, Rush started their bowling innings like a house on fire, and had reduced Leinster to 16/5 before South Africans Jarryd Chetty and skipper Hardus Venter settled the ship. Venter made 34 however a calf injury forced him to retire hurt leaving it to Bilal Azhar and Mark Tonge to scramble the Rathmines side to 91 off the final ball of the innings. Meanwhile in Sydney Parade, there was another nail biting finale, Phoenix had made 131 thanks to early runs from Jamie Grassi (33), captain’s runs in the middle from Adam Chester (42) and some bludgeoned runs from Aaron Cawley (29) at the end. An excellent opening burst from Joey Carroll taking 4 wickets meant Pembroke were always slightly behind the rate. Jack Balbirnie (28) was keeping them in the hunt, that was until Cawley again had an impact on the back-end of the innings, bowling Balbirnie and securing victory for Phoenix by 7 runs. Merrion’s first home game of the season gave their left-arm spin duo of Amish Sidhu and skipper Tom Stanton a chance to showcase their skills, 8 overs 2/21 between them was the outcome and they kept Dublin University to just 104, Sanil Gupta making 46 for the students on this occasion. Opening the batting, John Anderson made a well-paced 60 to see Merrion through to join Phoenix atop the table after two games.
It was these two sides who would play what appeared, on paper, to be the tie of the round on game-week 3 in the Phoenix Park, however Merrion seemed to have other ideas. Thanks in the main to Anderson again, making 74 and his opening partner Michael Lewis who made 39, they racked up 172/4 from their 20 overs. Early wickets for seamers Jamie McNulty and Hugh Kennedy accounted for Grassi and Lawlor, before the spinning pair of Stanton (3/6) and Sidhu (1/7) once again set about their work, tearing the heart out of Phoenix’s batting before it got a chance to get going, they stumbled to 60 all out and a 112 run loss, with that Merrion would be top of the group after round three regardless of what other teams could manage. At Pembroke, the home side batting first stuttered to 126 from their 20 overs, several players getting starts, but nobody kicking on. This
modest total however proved to be too much for Rush, as the Sydney Parade bowling attack again went about their work extremely efficiently, Ruttle the main wicket taker with 3/14 while Ryan Hopkins, Bill Whaley and Fiachra Tucker took two each to bowl Rush out for 81 and secure a 45 run victory. In Rathmines, Leinster made their way to 154/5 from 20 overs thanks to a solid start from openers Monil Patel (38) and Saqib Bahadur (37) and some late blows from Peter Masterson (24). Murtaza Sidiqi set off like a steam-train in pursuit of the runs, however when Bahadur entered the attack with his leg-spin his 4/8, alongside two wickets for Tristen de Beer, North Kildare were stopped in their tracks and faltered to 88 all out, a 66 run victory for Leinster to get them off the mark for the season.
Game week 4 saw the unavoidable postponement of North Kildare vs Dublin University as Covid restrictions in Kildare prevented the game from being played there, whilst Trinity College’s ground was still unavailable. This left just two games to be settled, Phoenix travelled to Rush in the first of these ties and thanks to quick runs from Nathan McGuire (29), Neil Rock (49) and Jack McGee (32) the home side posted a competitive total of 174 from their 20 overs. If Rush considered even for a moment they were in the driving seat, Phoenix openers Lawlor and in-particular Grassi had other ideas, as the pair blitzed an opening stand of 89 before the former was out for 40. Grassi’s boundary laden 98 from just 57 balls took Phoenix to the brink of victory, before a small wobble saw them win by 5 wickets with 8 balls to spare. Back at Anglesea Road, Merrion put their 100% record on the line against Pembroke, the side who had been idle the previous weekend. Sidhu and Tom Stanton again shared 4 wickets with their spin bowling and this time around they were complimented by 3/18 from Sean Stanton, these wickets crucial in restricting Pembroke to just 105 all out in the final over. Given their form, this looked straightforward for Merrion but proved to be anything but, Pembroke launching their own barrage of spin through Paul Lawson, Scott Ruttle, Jack Balbirnie and Fiachra Tucker. At 44/2 Merrion appeared well set, but when Tucker brought himself on it all began to unravel, wicket after wicket fell and Merrion could only muster 91/8 from their 20 overs. A first defeat for Merrion and a result which blew the group wide open again. 7
Round 5 saw Merrion immediately bounce back with a home win against Leinster, Saqib Bahadur’s 49 helped the away side to post 125/8 from their allocation as Merrion’s bowlers again kept a stranglehold of the run rate throughout the innings. Bilal Azhar did his best to put the frighteners on Merrion in their chase, accounting for the top three in the order, but not before John Anderson had again given his side a base making 49. This left Michael Cowdrey (29) and Max Sorensen (31) to tidy up a relatively straightforward chase inside just 16 overs with 5 wickets in hand. North Kildare managed to fulfil their fixture away against Pembroke with a playing XI made up exclusively of players from outside of the county! Initially it appeared as though the Sydney Parade men would be continuing their good form without breaking a sweat, as three wickets from Jack Balbirnie as well as two apiece for Paul Lawson, Patrick Morris and Fiachra Tucker saw NK bowled out for 69. Muzamil Sherzad had more than a bit to say about that, however, as he launched a ferocious opening spell of 4/14, alongside the run outs of Cosgrave and Ruttle there may have been a bit of angst in the Pembroke dressing room until Paul Lawson and Joe Prendergast settled the matter in the 15th over for a 4 wicket victory. The third game of the round saw Diarmaid Tucker (34) and Sanil Gupta (22) help Dublin University to 119 in what was their only home game of the season, Nathan McGuire’s 4/10 from 4 overs helping Rush to restrict the students. Neil Rock was the mainstay of the chase, making 38 as Rush saw off the total from the 2nd ball of the 17th over for a 4 wicket win.
The sixth round of fixtures was kicked off by an early game in Observatory Lane where Dublin University batted first, opening pair Diarmaid Tucker (32) and Nicolaas Pretorious (52) saw them to 109 before the innings was cut short in the 19th over. Leinster were set a revised target of 107 from
their 19 overs, number three Monil Patel made short work of this, smashing 57* to see his side to victory in the 14th over by 8 wickets. In the Phoenix Park, North Kildare batted first, three wickets from Aaron Cawley and a brace each for Theo Dempsey and Ben White helped the home side restrict them to 75 all out inside 15 overs. If this group had learned anything from the previous week it was that North Kildare would certainly not lie down and allow this to be any easy chase, but even North Kildare may have been somewhat surprised by what happened next. Anees Ahmad (6/16) and Muzamil Sherzad (2/19) blew Phoenix away, the home side reeling on 30/8. Ahmad’s figures were the best return for any bowler in the competition this season. Joey Carroll and Ben White came together for Phoenix and managed to steer the ship almost all the way home, before the umpires intervened and awarded penalty runs to the batting side to end the game before the start of the last over, and with that a 5 run DLS victory for Phoenix. In Kenure in the final game of the day, Merrion batted first and made 177/5 from their 20 overs thanks to more runs from Anderson (77) and an excellent 57* from Sean Stanton, two wickets apiece from Allan Eastwood and Jarred Barnes helping Rush to prevent Merrion from getting away from them. The home side’s chase started well with Nathan McGuire making 56 from 26 balls, Stephen Doheny then took centre stage with 78* from just 43 balls seeing his side to victory in the 19th over of the chase, Rush winning by 5 wickets and Merrion, the first team to finish their group games, had gone from being 3 wins from 3, to relying on other results to qualify for the semi-final stage.
That result meant that leading in to round 7, Pembroke and Phoenix both knew that victories would see them qualify for the semi-final stages of the competition. Phoenix batted first in Rathmines and made 125/6 from their 20 overs thanks mainly to 59 from Jamie Grassi at the top of the order, George Dockrell’s 3/26 allowing Leinster to keep something of a handle on the run rate. Two wickets for each of Ben White, Aaron Cawley and Theo Dempsey saw Phoenix get on top in the game and Leinster could never recover, faltering to 75 all out, a 50 run victory for Phoenix which sealed them the top spot in the group. At Pembroke, Dublin University batted first and made 126/2 from their 20 overs, Pretorious (54), Tucker (27) and Gupta (35) again the men in the runs. Pembroke knew that a win would seal their place in the semi-finals however Conor Hoey’s new ball spell made it anything but a forgone conclusion, Hoey took 3/13 dismissing both Fiachra and Lorcan Tucker, as well as Ryan Hopkins, two wickets for Milo Egan helped reduced Pembroke to 48/5, before Paul Lawson came to the crease, his 45 from 35 balls saw his side home from the penultimate ball and helped them finish 2nd in the group, securing a semi-final berth. The final game of the round saw Rush hold North Kildare to 69 from a reduced 10 overs, however Neil Rock’s 44* from just 17 balls made short work of the target, as the Kenure men chased their target down in just under 6 overs.
The result of this group was Phoenix and Pembroke finishing as the top two having both won 5 out of 6 games, Phoenix finishing top by virtue of their 2nd week victory over the Sandymount side. They would progress to the semi-final stage, to face off against the top two from Group B.