On Saturday 5th July the four teams that will compete in the Semi-Finals of the RSA Leinster Senior Cup will be Clontarf, Malahide, The Hills and Merrion. They took very different routes to the SF’s.
Clontarf had the easiest of it. Put in to bat, Cork were soon in trouble and were three down within 10 overs. Delany made the initial breakthrough [3/32] and thereafter wickets fell regularly. Clifford and Kellegher staged a mini-recovery for the 5th wicket but it was not enough and Cork were bowled out for 124 in the 36th over. Clontarf did not take long getting the runs. Collier fell early but Coghlan and Gopal knocked off the runs in just 20 overs.
With no scorecard to go by the details of the Malahide match are a little sketchy but it appears to have gone the way of many of their matches this year. A batting onslaught led by Strydum provided the foundation and a score of 303 was always going to be a big ask from Phoenix. In reply Phoenix reached 171/5 with 19 overs remaining but the innings fell away and Malahide were comfortable winners by 80 runs.
The third match was a hard fought affair at The Inch between North County and The Hills. North County batted first and the first seven bats all got into double figures with 50s from Affleck and Garry. But nobody made a decisive contribution. Kumar was the pick of the bowlers with 3/41. The batting from The Hills had a similar look to it, all eight who made it to the wicket made contributions with only Sorensen reaching 50. It was left to Pretorius and Shoukat to bring it home with an undefeated partnership of 62 for the seventh wicket.
The last QF turned into an unlikely nail-biting affair as Merrion lost wickets in a frantic run chase. Earlier Pembroke had taken advantage of first knock to post a competitive 297/9 in their 60 overs. At 107/4 Pembroke looked to be in a little trouble but a quick 65 from Barry McCarthy got the innings back on track and with everyone contributing [including Merrion with a generous 30 extras] Pembroke batted their overs. Joyce got 5/50 off 12 and Ackland [2/39] and Stanton [1/43] were economical.
For a time it looked as if Pembroke’s score of near 300 was not going to be nearly enough. Ackland [39] and Kane got off to a steady start and made 69 for the first wicket. This was followed by a 147 run partnership between Thompson [69] and Kane and at 216/1 it looked like the match was done and dusted. But Pembroke were inspired by a fine, aggressive spell of bowling from McCarthy [3/49] and very quickly the wheels started to come off the wagon. Thompson and Andersen fell to McCarthy, Joyce made a quick 19 before being caught on the boundary off Murphy and then Tucker [3/57] made the crucial breakthrough to dismiss Kane [112] who had survived an early chance but went on to bring Merrion within sight of victory. But wickets fell in clutches and by the time the last pair got to the crease 11 were still needed. With one over to go it was 8. The first ball was driven over the bowler for four by O’Donoghue and then the rest of the over was a mad scramble for runs. The records will say that Merrion won by one wicket in 59.5 overs.
Pembroke will have been very disappointed to have gotten so close to an unexpected victory with their very young team. But they fought hard throughout and the ground fielding was excellent. McCarthy was the pick of the bowlers and perhaps the only one on either side to get anything out of a very good wicket. Eight overs from U15 Josh Little were also worthy of note as he backed up McCarthy with a very good spell of left-arm seam.
The two teams move onto their second encounter of the weekend, this time in the league at Anglesea Rd. Another busy day with a full round of D1/D2 matches.