SPORTSHUB SECOND XI PREMIER LEAGUE PREVIEW

This Easter weekend sees league cricket begin in Leinster for the 2022 season, and with the Premier League and Championship not set to kick off until April 23^rd, this week’s preview will be from the newly rebranded SportsHub Second XI Premier League, formerly known as Division 3.

There are 5 games in the league this weekend, with a full round of four fixtures being played on Sunday afternoon, but we’ll begin with Saturday’s offering as Malahide will welcome Clontarf to the international ground for the opening game in the league this season.

Saturday, April 16th

The visitors were the 2021 Division 3 and Tillain Cup champions, they defeated YMCA 2 in the league final, having earlier accounted for Civil Service 1 in the final of the t20 competition. Generally their side was bolstered last year by the addition of Joe Morrissey who has stopped playing 1^st XI cricket, whilst Shariful Islam is another ex-1^st teamer plying his trade in the seconds these days, alongside their younger talents of the likes of John McNally & Aaron McGeehan, as well as players with a number of years at this level under their belt, Clontarf will be expecting to start the season strongly.

Malahide were not quite as strong last season as they have been in years gone by, mainly down to Callum Riches’ return to the 1^st XI after a couple of years playing in the 2^nd team, he had been the side’s premier batsman in that time and could always be relied upon for runs. It appears as though he’s remaining in the 1^st XI for the time being, so the batting responsibilities are set to be mainly in the hands of Nick Turner and Timcy Khanduja, who both have played a number of years at this level, with Khanduja’s move from Merrion proving very beneficial to Malahide last season. Diarmuid Burke will likely be the side’s main strike bowler, the Irish U19 is a left-armer who controls the ball excellently and should be well capable of causing problems in this league.

If both the youngsters line up in this game, John McNally’s battle with Diarmuid Burke will be the one to keep an eye on here.

Sunday, 17^th April

Moving on to Sunday’s fixtures, the two bottom sides from last season face off against each other as North County host Railway Union at Inch. The home side are a generally young side which has quite a bit of cricket at this level under it’s belt, Seán Rooney, John Devane and Salman Aziz are three very strong left-handed players at the top of their batting line-up who have all tasted first team cricket, whilst with the ball Ben McBride and Anthony Mooney were both consistent performers in this team last season.

Railway Union haven’t performed well at this level at all for the last number of years, but appear to have strengthened themselves ahead of the 2022 season, much is unknown about many of their players, however Fakhar Zaman has a good all-round record at this level, and it’s likely their bowling will be lead by Shariq Khan and Seán O’Brien in what is a team that will retain a reasonable amount of last season’s spine.

Should they face off, the battle between the bat of John Devane and bowling of Seán O’Brien will be the one to keep an eye on here.

Leinster host Merrion in Observatory Lane in a game between two sides who couldn’t quite string a run of results together last season. The hosts are a solid outfit, with several very good young bowlers in the side including Tristen de Beer, Jack Barry, Devan Keenan and spinner Joe McCarthy, with the experienced Craig Mallon being the general mainstay in their batting line-up, he and Peter Masterson tended to account for most of the runs in the side last year and this season they’ll hope to contribute equally well.

Merrion on the other hand appear to have added new players that give their 2nds plenty of depth this season, Grant Glutz’s addition last season was a boost however he was heavily relied upon for runs, they’ve added new names in the shape of Swapnil Modgil and Franco Marais to their already experienced line-up which included the likes of Peter Forkin, Niranjan Shankar and Chirag Poddar. Jamie MacNulty is the main seamer in the side and if he manages to stay injury free and play this season he’ll certainly cause trouble in this league.

It'll be interesting to see how Leinster’s youngster Devan Keenan fares against the likes of Niranjan Shankar should the pair face off at any stage during the game.

Next up, Malahide complete their double weekend by hosting Pembroke, the Sydney Parade side have taken a hit across their 1^st and 2^nd team squad at the start of this season, with several of their players opting to play for Dublin University in the Senior League Cup campaign, that in itself leaves the door open for some of their younger players to grab an opportunity in the side chief among those will be Macdara Cosgrave with the bat, whilst the return of Rehan Ali will assist in that area too. The bowling of Joe Prendergast and Piyush Sharma will be as important as ever with both having played plenty of cricket at this level. Pembroke captain Joe Prendergast will be enlisting the services of three of the club’s women’s internationals this weekend, with his sister Orla joined in the team by Shauna Kavanagh and Mary Waldron who will be behind the stumps against a side for whom she has previously donned the gloves.

Malahide’s team on Sunday remains strong, keeping the main body of Saturday’s side, although even with a few changes it’s probably worth noting that their game on Saturday could have a profound effect on their performance rolling into Sunday, if they are carrying momentum they will obviously look to ride the crest of a wave, however if they’re not, they may miss out on a golden opportunity to take advantage of facing Pembroke when they are missing a number of regular players. No doubt their batters who are doubling up, Timcy Khanduja and John Pryor will be relishing two bites at the cherry to sink their teeth into the season whilst their bowling attack is in general young enough that it should be more than capable of rolling out two strong showings in two days.

It will be interesting to see whether Orla Prendergast has the same impact with the ball as former Pembroke player Kim Garth had when she played in Division 3, she’ll have a battle with an explosive Malahide top-order featuring John Pryor to contend with in her first game in this league.

The final game is probably the tie of the weekend, as Clontarf will host YMCA in Castle Avenue. Much the same as was said about Malahide’s Sunday game can probably apply to Clontarf here as well but it’s really worth noting how prolific some of their “form players” can be when they get going and it’ll be a big worry to YM’s bowling attack should they see the likes of Andrew Delany or John McNally hitting the ground running on Saturday afternoon, Delany in particular is the sort of player who can score runs at any level when he is in good touch, the obvious disadvantage for the home side that their more experienced bowlers might not get through two games in a weekend should possibly be dispelled here by the freshness of a new season helping them out, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if they leaned heavily on Matt Butler to carry most of the workload on Sunday afternoon.

YMCA on the other hand field a very strong side for skipper Padraic Flanagan’s first game at the helm, he takes over as skipper after Andrew Blair-White’s 4 year stint with the armband. Sean Macauley is the most experienced batter in the side and he’ll be joined by new man Tom Johnson at the top of the order. The side also boasts two players who represented Ireland at the recent U19 World Cup with Jamie Forbes and Reuben Wilson assuming all-round roles in the side. Elliott Johns was the leading gloveman in the league last season and he again is YM’s man behind the sticks, his excellent hands are an extremely helpful asset to Forbes and fellow left-arm spinner Cillian McDonnell, both of whom will be building on excellent season’s last year.

YMCA’s young batting line-up will need someone to lead it this season, so Sean Macauley’s battle early doors with Matt Butler is likely to be a key part of this game.