The Phoenix captain Brad Kneebone is bowled by Jack Carty
T20 matches can be brutal affairs as the Quarter Finals of the LHK Insurance Leinster Senior [Alan Murray] demonstrated. On Thursday we saw Clontarf sweep aside Munster Heat by nine wickets in Castle Avenue. With only Jeremy Benton [63*] for the visitors able to make a telling contribution the final score of 115/9 was never enough to threaten the current AM Champions. With Bill Coghlan [70*] leading the way Clontarf duly knocked off the runs in 16.1 overs for the loss of one wicket. Pick of the bowlers for Clontarf Abraham Pienaar with 4/24.
There was an even more punishing experience for Phoenix on their visit to Anglesea Road where some excellent bowling and fielding by Merrion restricted them to 101/7 in their 20 overs. None of the Merrion bowlers were hit and only four boundaries were scored in the whole innings. Sean Stanton [2/16] had the best figures. The Merrion innings was short [8.1 overs] and in a court of law could only have been accounted an assault. Boundaries off the first two balls set the tone but with the slowest scoring rate of the three batsmen at 184.62 there was really no let up. In the end Merrion won by nine wickets with David Langford-Smith making 40*.
The match can be seen in full or just the highlights and scorecard at https://www.pitchvision.com/#/pvm/72964. The match can also be found on the Merrion Cricket Club youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxDdGf-JI8s
The third QF was between YMCA and The Hills at Claremont Road. Batting first The Hills got off to a poor start with James Parkinson taking two early wickets. Wickets fell regularly and despite a 59 [44 balls] from Daya Singh the innings never really caught fire and ended when Singh was out off the last ball for 132. Parkinson ended up with 4/12 off his four overs.
Fifty runs from Harry Tector held the YMCA response together and at one stage it looked like they should reach the target quite comfortably. But five wickets fell for 13 runs in three overs and The Hills were back in the game. In the end it was left to U17 Mitchell Thompson [11*] to steer YMCA home for a one wicket victory on the last ball. Scorecard can be found on http://www.totalcricketscorer.com/TCSLive/tcslivescores.aspx
So Clontarf, Merrion and YMCA are all through to the finals day. North County and Leinster have to try again to see who will join them as their game was rained off last night.