Season Review – Tillain Cup Group B

Group B of the IBI Corporate Finance Tillain Cup was contested again by two first teams, Adamstown and Knockharley, and six second teams, from Leinster, Phoenix, Clontarf, Pembroke, Terenure and Civil Service.

Round one opened up with Phoenix making the trip to Leinster, where the home side batted first. Sandeep Shahdeo was making his debut for Leinster, and in doing so he top scored with 56 opening the batting, Tristen de Beer’s 25 supporting the opener as Leinster scored 119/4 from their 20 overs. Ashish Rana’s 2/9 from 4 overs was an eye-catching bowling performance from the Phoenix side. Openers Stephen Black and Emad Uddin put on 93 before the former fell for 48, and when Uddin fell for 52 with the score on 101, Phoenix wobbled thanks to two wickets each for Euan Mackay and Tanvir Hasan, the visitors however settled the chase down and won by 6 wickets with just over 4 overs to spare. Clontarf welcomed Knockharley to Castle Avenue and the visitors batted first, Ross Shivmangal started off proceedings with a run-a-ball 51, and with support from brother Harry, Knockharley posted 110/6 from their 20 overs. Ben McCabe and Andrew Delany taking two wickets each for the home side. Delany’s work wasn’t finished there as he took the lead in the run chase, opening the batting his 58* saw Clontarf home with just under 5 overs to spare, Richard Forrest with 19* sharing a decisive unbeaten 3^rd wicket stand with his opening batsman as Clontarf managed an 8 wicket win. Civil Service welcomed Terenure, and the home side batted first, Nilesh Joshi and Prasan Shah, with 26 and 24 respectively, set a good base, but no other batsman really kicked on, on what was proving to be a tough pitch to get started on. In spite of this the home side made it to 125 all out in the final over. There were two wickets apiece for Bhavic Tukrel and Hayden Sharland, but Darren Snell was the main protagonist for Terenure, with his 4/14 ensuring Service didn’t get away. As was proved at the back end of the first innings, it was tough to get started, unfortunately for Terenure only captain Abdul Qadir Ishaq passed 12, as his 38 was the top score in Terenure’s 101/7 from 20. Ronak Modi’s 2/19 the pick in a good all-round effort from the hosts with the ball in securing themselves a 24 run win. In Corkagh Park, Adamstown batted first against Pembroke and the away side took wickets regularly, only Krith Shetty (24) passing 20 for the hosts as three wickets for Scott Ruttle and two for skipper Joe Prendergast saw Pembroke bowl the home side out for 100 from the final ball. Ruttle (24) and keeper Rob Kelly (31) had Pembroke in the driving seat at 64/2, at which point Bradley Fernandes entered the attack for the home side. He took 4/19 from his 4 overs to leave Pembroke scrambling and when a mix up saw an injured Harry Balbirnie run out Pembroke were 95 all out, a 5 run Adamstown victory.

The second round opened with Terenure welcoming Pembroke, the visitors batted first and David Cosgrave (65) dominated partnerships of 43 and 47 with Gavin Hoey (19) and Rob Kelly (22) respectively, three wickets for Phillip Rout saw Pembroke wobble, but some late blows from Bill Whaley (17*) saw the visitors to 145/8 from their 20 overs. Supporting Rout there were two wickets for each of Darren Snell and Niqash Ali. An early wicket each for captain Prendergast and Whaley accompanied by two run outs saw Terenure’s reply in tatters at 15/4 before it could get going, Bhavic Tukrel’s 23 the only score of real note as the home side limped to 95/7 from 20 overs. A 50 run victory for the visiting side. Pembroke’s bowling was generally excellent with spin from Ruttle, Prendergast and Hoey all bowling 4 over spells and none conceding more than 15 runs. Civil Service made the trip to Leinster where they batted first. Two wickets for each of Noel Cronin, Shaaz Ahmed, Tristen de Beer and Tanvir Hasan meant no batsman was allowed to pass 15 as Leinster kept their visitors to 88/9 from 20 overs. Syed Akbar’s 3/18 had Leinster briefly in a spot of bother at 38/3, however de Beer joined Ghanyasham Godara at the crease and with unbeaten scores of 19 and 39 respectively, saw their side to a 7 wicket victory with 3 overs to spare. Knockharley welcomed Phoenix to Kentstown where the home side batted first. An excellent 74 from Tayyab Rashid saw his team reach 159/9 from their allocation, no other batsman passing 18 as Phoenix took regular wickets to keep something of a hold on their opponents. Ahmed Shah the pick of their bowlers with 3/25 from his 4 overs. Captain Jack Condie accounted for both Phoenix openers early in the piece before Theo Dempsey’s 61 not out brought Phoenix to a respectable total, in a remarkable turn there were no fewer than 5 run outs in the second innings, three of which went to Harry Shivmangal, and the away side were all out for 128 from their 20 overs. Clontarf were the visitors to Adamstown in the final game of the round, batting first the home side launched an assault as Hamid Ali (76 from 50 balls) and Hamza Maan (44 from 25) started like a house on fire. Clontarf’s 5^th and 6^th bowlers, Alfie Jones (2/15) and Mark Collier (4/9) managed to put the breaks on the innings late in the piece and keep Adamstown to 151/9, having at one stage been 140/4. The ‘Tarf reply started poorly, Shiv Sethi accounting for the first three batsmen in quick succession to leave them 17/4. Richard Forrest and Shane O’Brien managed 37 each, with Jack MacNiece’a 26* getting Clontarf within striking range, but the early wickets had done the damage and Adamstown completed a 12 run win, Sethi the pick of the bowlers with 4/21, supported by Krith Shetty’s 2/22.

Round three saw Civil Service travel to Adamstown, the visiting side batting first in this instance, Shiv Sethi was again on form with the ball for the home side, taking 3/14 from his 4 overs. Raj Neghandi, Sachin Mistry and Nilesh Joshi all passed 30 though, allowing Service to get themselves to a decent total of 139/7 from their 20 overs. Hamza Maan was again to the fore in the chase, making 39, before an excellent spell of 4/20 from Prasan Shah caused a major middle order collapse. Suhas Yellur (47) and Aman Yadav (24) saw Adamstown most of the way home before both fell, when they did it went right to the final ball, where Adamstown managed to squeak out the two wicket win and maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign. Phoenix batted first in their visit to Terenure and thanks to 25 from Evan Chester, 34 from Stephen Black, and unbeaten scores from Theo Dempsey (39) and Abdullah Tariq (20) made the best of their way to 143/3 from 20 overs, Mark Thomas’ 1/11 and Kenny McDonald’s 1/18 both from 4 overs were the two Terenure spells which stopped Phoenix posting a much larger total. Again however the Terenure reply never really got going, McDonald managing the top score of 25 as they could manage only 93 all out in the 19^th over. Ahmed Shah (3/18) and Conor Cooney (3/26) the best of the bowlers for Phoenix in securing a 50 run win. Clontarf welcomed Leinster to Castle Avenue, where the home side batted first. Andrew Delany’s 75* supported by 29 from John McNally countered an early wobble to see ‘Tarf from 49/3 to finish 128/4 from their 20 overs. Noel Cronin’s early 2/18 the pick of the Leinster attack. Leinster’s innings began slowly, Sandeep Shahdeo making 28 before top-scorer Peter Masterson made 48 and accompanied by Mark Tonge’s 23* looked to get Leinster into the game, it wasn’t to be however as tight spells from opening bowlers, Kashif Ali (1/18) and Matt Butler (2/18) had put Leinster too far behind the game, and a 12 run win was sealed for Clontarf. Pembroke visited Knockharley, and got first use of the pitch, Cosgrave, Hoey, Ruttle and Prendergast all managed between 23 and 28 in getting their side to 130/3 from 20 overs, no bowler took multiple wickets, but there were very economical spells for Ross Shivmangal (1/18) and Kamran Mirza (0/15). Joe Ingamells 25 saw Knockharley well set at 39/1 in the chase however three quick wickets, two for Hoey and one for Whaley, saw them slump to 55/4 as the weather closed in. These wickets proved vital as Pembroke came out on the right side of the DLS calculations, winning by 9 runs, Gavin Hoey’s 2/25 proving match-winning in the course of the game.

Pembroke travelled to Phoenix to kick off round 4. The home side batted first with Afkar Ahmed top scoring with 42, support from Abdullah Tariq (22) and Anish Rana (20) saw Phoenix make 132 all out from their 20 overs. Patrick Morris and Gavin Hoey took two wickets apiece, but it was 3/16 from Andrew Leonard which was the starring performance. The chase was all about David Cosgrave’s innings which he paced excellently in making a run-a-ball 59 not out, seeing his side home to a 6 wicket victory without too much alarm after just 18 overs. Stephen Black’s 1/15 from 4 overs the best spell of bowling on offer from a Phoenix point of view. Knockharley visited Civil Service and batted first, Ross Shivmangal made 50 along with top-scoring Tayyab Rashid’s 64 as they made their way to 167/9 from 20 overs. Prasan Shah’s 3/19 was supported by two wickets for each of Illif Sumit and Rohith Gunaseelan. Liju Kunnumal’s 32, along with 28 from Sony Sebastien turned out to be only damage limitation as Ross Shivmangal put together one of the performances of the season taking 5/15 from his 4 overs to go with his earlier half-century, he was supported by 2/20 from skipper Condie and 2/21 from Mizra as Knockharley ran out 33 run victors. Adamstown’s first away game of the season saw them visit Leinster, where the home side batted first. Rian Cassidy made 28 and Mark Tonge 25* but apart from that it was all about Adamstown’s bowlers as 3/12 from Hamza Maan and 4/20 from Rajiv Diwan saw them bowl Leinster out for 96 inside their 20 overs. The chase was quite remarkable, Maan and Krith Shetty trying to outdo one another with boundaries as they finished on 43 from 24 balls, and 52 from 27 balls respectively, both unbeaten as the 10 wicket victory was secured off the first ball of the 9^th over of the innings. Adamstown at this point 4 from 4 and in the driving seat in the group. Terenure visited Clontarf in the final game of the round, and the hosts batted first, their total of 132/6 from 20 overs was built in the main around 52 from Brendan Hildebrand. Niqash Ali’s 2/31 the pick of the Terenure bowling in this instance. Jack MacNiece was the star of the second innings, taking 4/28 from his 4 overs as no Terenure batsman passed 14 in the chase, Mark Collier’s 2/9 supported MacNiece and the visitors were bowled out for just 75 in 17 overs, securing a 57 run win for Clontarf.

Unbeaten table-toppers Adamstown welcomed Terenure to Corkagh Park in the 5^th round of fixtures. The weather saw the game reduced to just 16 overs by the time the away team took the field to bat first. Captain Abdul Qadir Ishaq’s 71* along with Colm Morgan’s 41* saw Terenure make 155/2 from their allocation. In the circumstances, Bradley Fernandes’ 1/23 from 4 was quite impressive. For the second week in a row, Adamstown’s chase could be described as nothing short of remarkable. Maan and Shetty put on 83 for the opening stand, the former dominating with his 53 including four boundaries and four maximums, however, when both fell in the space of two runs, wickets fell quickly, and with the required rate starting at ten an over, there was no room for quiet overs. Sid Nair’s 4/28 put the home side on the back foot, but even as batsmen came and went, they kept throwing the bat in search of the runs. Needing 15 off the final two overs with two wickets in hand, Hayden Sharland bowled the penultimate and conceded just three, leaving the game in the balance, number 8 Harpreet Singh then dispatched Aidan Doyle over the tree to start the final over, before the Terenure man took the final two wickets in the space of three balls. A two run victory their first of the season, blowing the group wide open by in inflicting Adamstown’s first defeat. Pembroke welcomed Civil Service to Sydney Parade and batted first, David Cosgrave top scored with 38 in an opening stand of 63 with Gavin Hoey who made 34. Rob Kelly’s 17 meant he and Cosgrave took the score to just under 100, but after the pair fell in quick succession, Dhiraj Shetty began to have a day out, taking 5/23 meaning no other batter could get going and Pembroke made it to 127/8 from their 20 overs. The Service chase began poorly, losing their openers cheaply before Simranjeet Singh (20) and Ronak Modi (27) steadied the ship. When this pair were dismissed, Hoey and Joe Prendergast combined to squeeze the lower order, finishing up with 3/14 and 3/13 respectively as they bowled their visitors out for 112, securing a 15 run Pembroke victory that brought them level on points with Adamstown. Knockharley were visitors to Leinster where they batted first. Ross Shivmangal made 39 and shared a second wicket stand of 71 with Tayyab Rashid (31) in taking the score to 90/1 before both fell in quick succession. This brought Harry Shivmangal to the crease, he unloaded the cannons in the final few overs in making 45* from just 23 balls, taking his side to 154/4 from their 20 overs. Ghanshyam Godara’s 2/27 were the pick of the bowling figures for Leinster. Ross Shivmangal and Jack Condie opened proceedings with the ball for Knockharley, both taking two wickets and leaving Leinster in all sorts of bother at 18/4. Kamran Mirza and Ramiz Sohail then entered the attack and picked up the next 4 wickets, restricting their hosts to 51/8. Shaaz Ahmed (21) and Tanvir Hasan (27*) managed to avert possible embarrassment in seeing their side to 101/9 from their 20 overs. A 53 run victory for Knockharley which kept them in the qualification hunt. The final game of the round saw Clontarf visit Phoenix. The visitors batted first, Andrew Delany made 35 at the top of the order, supported firstly by Shane O’Brien, then Brendan Hildebrand, who both made 20, before 30 from John McNally in partnership with Mark Collier’s 19* saw the visitors up to 152/6 from their allocation. Stephen Black ‘s 3/34 supported by Conor Cooney’s 2/30 for Phoenix were the best of the bowling efforts. Black lead his side’s reply with 44 from 32 balls, but he lost three partners early to Matt Butler (3/11), then when Black fell to Collier with the score on 101, Andrew Delany entered the attack and took four wickets, all bowled, to see Clontarf to a 20 run victory, restricting Phoenix to just 132/9 from their 20 overs.

The penultimate round saw Adamstown travel to Knockharley, in a game which would have a big impact on qualification for the semi-finals. Ross Shivmangal and Tayyab Rashid again both made 20s in setting a platform for Harry Shivmangal and Mark Ingamells to launch another big score for the home side. Shivmangal made 51 with Ingamells finishing 33* before rain brought the innings to an end 5 balls early. This shower went on for quite some time and reduced Adamstown’s innings to just 5 overs, their target set at 54. Jack Condie took two wickets to dismiss Hanan and Hamza Maan before a run had been scored, before Bradley Fernandes was run out to leave the visitors 4/3. Ross Shivmangal bowled his over for 6, followed by Mirza conceding just 4. Tayyab Rashid bowled the 4^th over and was subject to an assault of power hitting by Suhas Yellur, taking him for 20, leaving 18 needed from the last. Ramiz Sohail kept his cool, conceding just 9, meaning in spite of Yellur’s best efforts finishing 38*, Knockharley had won by 8 runs on DLS. This result meant Pembroke could go into top spot with just one group game remaining, they batted first at home against Clontarf and gave themselves a chance to do just that. Joe Prendergast top scoring with 23 before some late runs by Rehan Ali and Bill Whaley got the home side to 120/9 from their 20 overs. Andrew Delany was again the pick for Clontarf, taking 3/19, with Matt Butler also taking 3/28 and Paul Ryan bowling an excellent spell of 2/17 from his 4 overs. Unfortunately for Clontarf, their chase never got firing, captain Niall Delany top scored with 17 as a totally dominant bowling performance from Pembroke stopped any chance of their visitors claiming victory. Two wickets for each of Prendergast, Gavin Hoey and Andrew Leonard supplemented the pick of the bowlers, Srikanth Venkata Subramaniam, who’s 3/14 helped bowl Clontarf out for 77, securing a 43 run victory which took Pembroke top of the log. There were two derbies to round off the proceedings, firstly in the Phoenix Park, Civil Service bowled first and their hosts Phoenix made 162/6 from their 20 overs. Emad Uddin and Callum O’Byrne made 25 and 24 respectively at the top of the order, Stephen Black’s 30 then preceded the top-scoring Afkar Ahmed, who’s 44 from just 25 balls boosted the home side to an above par total. Ronak Modi managed 3/21 from his 4 overs, being the pick of the bowlers in an otherwise tough assignment. Malkeet Singh (26) and Nilesh Joshi (25) did their best to make a decent fist of the chase, but the second innings was all about youngster Conor Cooney, as he took 4/17 from his 4 over allocation, shredding the Service middle order, meaning the visitors could manage only 118/9 from their 20 overs. The second derby of the day saw Terenure welcome Leinster, the home side batted first and some tight bowling saw their inning stumble and stutter, not helped by three run outs in the middle order. Colm Morgan made 20, supporting top-scoring Donal Vaughan who managed 36 not out as the home side made 107/7 from their 20 overs. Shaaz Ahmed the pick of the bowlers with 2/25 while there were very impressive economical spells from Devan Keenan (1/10) and Tanvir Hasan (1/17). Leinster’s reply didn’t start brilliantly, Darren Snell and Dylan Cleary sharing two early wickets before Tejuswi Gupta entered the attack and his 3/10 from 4 overs saw Leinster reduced to 53/7, his final wicket crucially being the set batsman Sandeep Shahdeo for 20. Rian Cassidy and Shaaz Ahmed put on 28 for the 8^th wicket before the Leinster captain fell for 13 to Snell. Ahmed then had to manage strike to give Leinster a chance to win, and that he did, hitting two boundaries in the final over to take Leinster to 108/8 with a ball to spare, Ahmed finishing up on 33* himself to cap an excellent all-round day.

The final day started with two from Pembroke, Knockharley and Adamstown set to qualify for the semi final stage, with the potential for a three-way tie and Net-Run-Rate coming into the equation. Clontarf visited Civil Service in what was, relatively speaking, the dead rubber game of the round, the visitors batted first, and some excellent bowling efforts from Service restricted them to 85 all out, captain Niall Delany making 21. There were three wickets for Dhiraj Shetty, with two victims apiece for Pranav Desai, Ronak Modi and Syed Akbar in an extremely economic all-round affair for the home side. Keith Webster anchored the second innings, making 38 in good time before being dismissed by Kashif Ali. The home side eventually running out 5 wicket victors with just over 4 overs to go. Knockharley travelled to Terenure knowing that they needed a victory to qualify for the knockout stages, they batted first and Joe Ingamells’ 36 got them off to a quick start, however he lost both Ross Shivmangal and Tayyab Rashid early on. Harry Shivmangal put on 50 with Ingamells before the latter was dismissed, Bhavic Tukrel then took two wickets in two balls and the away side had gone from 64/2 to 65/5. Enter Tahir Rasheed, his 62 from 41 deliveries helped put on a partnership of 103 with Shivmangal, who himself finished 51* as Knockharley managed 184/6 from their 20 overs. Tukrel was the pick for Terenure, taking 2/22 in an otherwise expensive effort. Having lost Abdul Qadir Ishaq and Tukrel to Jack Condie early on, Sid Nair made the best possible effort to get his side in the game, putting on a 51 run third wicket stand with Colm Morgan, who made 21, before wickets began tumbling, Morgan was run out, and Condie sniffed blood, calling Ross Shivmangal back into the attack to bowl his final over earlier than expected. Shivmangal delivered, accounting for Vignesh Kumar and Akshat Jain in back-to-back deliveries, Terenure 77/5 and with two players injured in the fielding effort, seemingly out of the game. Nair had one more effort,  dominating a partnership of 45 for the 8^th wicket with Aidan Doyle, when Doyle’s wicket fell, Knockharley were penalised for slow over-rate, adding 12 to Terenure’s score. Sharland was run out trying to get Nair the strike and Terenure were all out for 137 with two full overs left behind. This victory didn’t just put Knockharley in the hunt, it boosted their run-rate greatly too. Adamstown travelled to Phoenix, who batted first and the visitors bowlers put on an exhibition in the first innings, no bowler conceding more than a run a ball in their spell. 21 for Callum O’Byrne and a late 17* from Abdullah Tariq got Phoenix as far as 92/7 before they ran out of overs. Bradley Fernandes’ 3/14 was the major contributor from Adamstown, he was supported by 2/14 from Suhas Yellur. Unlike in weeks gone by, with much bigger totals to chase, Adamstown’s top order faltered, Shetty run out for 5 after Hamza Maan had been bowled first ball, Bilal Chauhan then ran through the Adamstown middle order to leave them 28/5 and in deep trouble. Aman Yadav and Hanan Maan tried to steady affairs, but when the former became Conor Cooney’s first of 4 victims for a top score of 18, the visitors were in deep trouble. Maan, the only other player to reach double figures, was dismissed for 14 by Sankeerth Karpe, before Cooney rounded off his spell of 4/11 to bowl Adamstown out for 53 and seal a 39 run victory for Phoenix. Having started the competition 4/4, this run had seen Adamstown slump to 4^th in the table and out of the competition. The final game was Leinster’s visit to Pembroke. The visitors batted first and a slightly bizarre innings-of-two-halves ensued. Shahdeo, Godara, Masterson and Jawahar all fell before the score had reached 20, bringing Sanith Poojary and Shaaz Ahmed together at the crease, and the pair clearly had differing ideas about what to do in times of crisis! Poojary went boundary-less in a sedate 35 not out from 52 deliveries, seeking to ensure his side lost no further needless wickets, whilst up the other end Ahmed had a bonanza, unloading 78 not out from just 44 balls, striking four boundaries and six maximums in his innings, seeing Leinster reach 134/3 from their 20 overs. Patrick Morris and Gavin Hoey were the wicket takers, escaping the punishment with 1/16 and 1/11 from their 4 overs respectively. Pembroke reached 44/1 before losing opener Conor Mullen for 14, which signalled in a bit of a collapse as they slumped to 56/5. This saw Dale McDonough to the crease and his 33, kept company by 16 from Rehan Ali inched Pembroke towards their target. McDonough fell 15 runs short having top scored as Shaaz Ahmed continued his day out by dismissing him and Noah Smith in consecutive deliveries, Andrew Leonard threw his bat in an effort to fire Pembroke to victory but when he was dismissed from the penultimate ball, 6 were needed from the last, Euan Mackay held his nerve, conceded a single, and saw Leinster to a 4 run victory.

In spite of their final day loss, Pembroke topped the group by virtue of beating second-placed Knockharley, in a group which provided plenty of drama right down to the final overs of the last round of fixtures. The two sides would progress to face the Group A qualifiers in the semi-final stage.