SKELLIG SIX 18 LEINSTER SENIOR CUP SEMI-FINALS – SUNDAY 23 JULY

The business end of the season is well and truly upon us, as with half of the league campaigns completed, we reach what is really a crunch weekend in the senior ranks.

The Skellig Six18 Leinster Senior Cup semi-finals take place this weekend, with two fascinating ties in store. Treble-hunting Leinster travel to The Vineyard to take on The Hills, in a reverse of the Irish Senior Cup semi in which they were triumphant a couple of weeks ago in Observatory Lane. Meanwhile the Clontarf juggernaut travels across the East Link to Park Avenue, where they take on a Railway Union side which they comprehensively blew away in the league a few weeks back.

Of the four sides remaining in the competition, Leinster CC is the only team who haven’t won the title as yet this century, Railway Union last lifted the historic trophy in 2010, whilst The Hills had their last success back in 2017 when the hero was the local legend, Naz Shaukat (who has since retired).

Clontarf has often prospered in the knock-out senior cup format having etched their name on the trophy no less than 9 times since the year 2000. In that period of time however, only YMCA (4 times) have lifted the cup on more occasions than The Hills, who have three titles to their name.

THE HILLS VS LEINSTER (THE VINEYARD, 12.00PM)

Visitors Leinster come into this tie off the back of a very good start to the Premier League campaign, which was however stunted somewhat in the past couple of weeks, firstly with a batting collapse and loss to Merrion, then by last weekend’s all-round washout. Their path to the semi-final came via a victory at Inch last time out against North County in an excellent run-chase. Monil Patel was the hero that day, as his unbeaten 111 guided the team to an 8 wicket victory with more than 16 overs to spare.

Amazingly, the last two games Leinster have played against The Hills, both in the past three weeks, have seen the Rathmines side score the exact same total, 284/7, with Michael Hogan (79 & 61) and Saqib Bahadur (71 & 107*) being particular thorns in the side of the men from Skerries. Leinster’s two main players, Patel and Joey Carroll, have managed just 40 runs between them in the two fixtures so far and with Pete Francis also contributing a rapid unbeaten 83 in the league game, the league leaders look set to be an incredibly tough batting proposition to face up to again this weekend in The Vineyard.

Michael Hogan will be a key player for Leinster in their bid to reach the Final

Leinster have bowled The Hills out twice in their two fixtures so far this month, with the 20 wickets being shared across most of the bowlers used in that time, however Saqib Bahadur’s spin has accounted for 5, whilst there have been four wickets for each of Mark Tonge, Joey Carroll and Pete Francis. This competition meanwhile has seen excellent bowling performances from Tonge, who took 5/42 against North County in the Quarter-Final tie, whilst Bahadur was the star of the show in their first round victory in Claremont Road, he took 4/6 in 6.3 overs to blow away YMCA.

Jai Moondra has been struggling with injuries of late however he was another man to cause problems in the first round. The spin of Bahadur is complemented by Dev Ranolia’s left-arm spinners, whilst the skipper Bilal Azhar is the other left-arm seam option in the side which will no doubt present another tough proposition for The Hills.

The home side made it through to the semi-final stage thanks to a 69-run home victory over Pembroke in the Quarter-Final stage. That was set up thanks to a half-century from Bhavesh Lakhotia, before each of Nicolaj Laegsgaard, Cian Nulty, Jonathan Tall and Sean McNicholl all took two wickets to sink their opposition. Nulty and McNicholl were both successful against Leinster in the league fixture between the sides, taking 3/64 and 2/54 respectively, whilst it was Tall who took three wickets against the Rathmines side in the recent Irish Cup semi-final. Their young left-arm seamer Matthew Weldon will no doubt be a key cog in the wheel this weekend if they are to keep Leinster away from that magic 284 number they’ve managed in the past two fixtures, with Tómas Rooney-Murphy the other regular member of the bowling unit not mentioned as yet, he too has been in good form this season producing some fine spells.

With the bat, Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin has managed 127 runs in the two fixtures between these sides so far this season, coming so close to a brilliant century in the League when he managed 90. Nathan Rooney also made 52 in that fixture, however there hasn’t been another score of 50+ across the two innings, with Leinster, as mentioned before, having had four half-centuries and a ton in those two games. The likes of Laegsgaard, Mark Donegan and Bhavesh Lakhotia will be looking to be the men to push the home side towards a big score in this game, whilst a return from injury for Murray Commins would no doubt be a more than welcome addition to the side for this massive home semi-final, if he plays it will be a major boost psychologically and on the field for the Milverton men.

Leinster’s two key men are yet to fire against The Hills as yet this season, and a platform has been built in both games around their left-handed opener Michael Hogan, that will make him a prized wicket for the home side in this game, if their Australian quick Sean McNicholl can dismiss him early, it will give the side a massive chance of getting stuck into Patel and Carroll early on yet again.

KEY BATTLE: Sean McNicholl vs Michael Hogan

The Hills will undoubtedly benefit from strong local support on Sunday at The Vineyard

RAILWAY UNION VS CLONTARF (PARK AVENUE, 12.00PM)

The quarter-final fixture in the Skellig Six18 Leinster Senior Cup saw the return of David Delany to Clontarf colours and an immediate change in the clubs fortunes – Delany made an immediate impact with an excellent unbeaten 57 as they chased down Malahide’s 267 all out with 5 overs to spare.

Delany shared a fantastic partnership with ‘Bobbo’ Forrest in that game, as the pair added 143 for the 5^th wicket to bring the side back from well behind in the game into a position where the result was all-but guaranteed, Forrest fell for 99 on that occasion and whilst a century would have been more than deserved, the contribution seeing his side into the Semi-Final was the most important aspect.

The side will be without David Vincent for this fixture, he is cup-tied due to Dublin University having played in the competition, however they do still have plenty of ability in their top order, with skipper Eoghan Delany likely to open the batting, whilst John McNally has shown some indications that he’s getting back to something like top form in recent weeks. Clontarf’s last game against Railway Union on the first of July saw runs for both Forrest and McNally in a quickfire run chase, whilst Fionn Hand and Ryan Karunakaran both had good unbeaten knocks in their most recent League victory.

With the ball, the league fixture between these sides saw Fionn Hand taking three wickets, whilst there were two apiece for Mick Granger, David Delany and Ruan Cronje. Granger was also in form in the Quarter-Final stage, as he took three wickets, whilst Cronje also took another 2-for in their effort to bowl their hosts out that day. The stats in Clontarf’s favour don’t end there, Granger owns one of the finest ever campaigns in the Leinster Senior Cup, in 2015, his first season with the side, he took five-wicket hauls in three of the four rounds as Clontarf were Champions that season. As well as those already mentioned, Cillian McDonnell’s left arm spin, and John McNally’s medium pacers are two further options for the skipper Eoghan Delany to look at using this weekend.

Railway Union have had a weak 50-over campaign in the Premier League so far this season. With the exception of an excellent run chase against Balbriggan in the last completed round of games, where the side hunted down a score of 230, they have been poor in the League, with their two cup victories the shining light in their season so far.

Kiwi Riley Mudford made 37 in the league game against Clontarf earlier this month, top scoring in their total of 144 all out, that goes with his 66 in the chase against Rush in the quarter finals of the competition, a game in which there were also half-centuries for Kenny Carroll, and Liam McCarthy who was not out at the end of the chase. It was Carroll who top scored in the first round victory over Merrion, a game in which Mudford didn’t play.

With the ball, Railway were indebted to their spinners in the first round of the Cup, as Hamza Maan and Fakhar Zaman took four and three wickets respectively to see them restrict Merrion to just 133 all out. It was more of the same in the last round, as there were two wickets for each of Maan, Zaman and on this occasion Brandon Kruger also came to the party with two wickets for himself.

Whilst the league fixture between Railway and Clontarf a few weeks ago didn’t see too many wickets fall to the Park Avenue side, Zaman was responsible for two once again. With Liam McCarthy’s bowling load currently restricted as he comes back from injury, their spinners will be set to lead the line once again this weekend, with support in the shape of Sean O’Brien and Zaman Safi, both of whom have made their best efforts at helping to account for the loss of McCarthy’s bowling.

Riley Mudford has been far and away Railway Union’s best batsman since he came into the side at the back-end of May, if he makes runs they are sure to be in a position where they have something of a chance in this fixture, however in order to do so, he will need to get through David Delany’s spell of bowling, with the Tarf speedster sure to be looking for another haul of wickets to help see his side into yet another Senior Cup Final.

KEY BATTLE: Riley Mudford vs David Delany

Riley Mudford has been in brilliant form since joining Railway earlier this season

Clontarf defeated Phoenix in the first round before overcoming Malahide in the Quarter-Finals

The Final will be played on Saturday 5th August 2023 in Sydney Parade. The match will be live-streamed on the CL YouTube channel with commentary throughout the day. The CL President (Pat Banahan) will also be hosting a CL Patron’s Lunch in the Pembroke pavilion.

The trophy (which dates back to 1935) will be presented by June O’Connell, CEO Skellig Six 18 to the captain of the winning team. Our thanks to June & all the team at Skellig Six 18 for their support for the development of club cricket across Leinster.