As I look out of my window at the hail and rain it’s hard to believe that the 2016 Leinster leagues cricket season has begun. However, the aches and pains I am still feeling three days after my first game are a constant reminder that it has started and that I am no longer the spring chicken I once was. Sean McCann of Rush not only took a match-winning five wicket haul, including my wicket, but also reminded me why I should wear a thigh bad whilst batting! Ouchy.
In other news, I can now let John Bracewell know I am eligible and available should the Irish team be struck down, having received my Irish citizenship on Tuesday. By Irish team I do mean the current squad and the 2,000 other players ahead of me on the list, in a epidemic not seen since the Spanish Influenza of 1919. It is very unlikely that I will ever don the green, but John, if you’re reading this article, I am raring and eager to go.
The computerisation of scorecards since 2011 has provided sad number crunchers like me with a wealth of information, as has been seen in Paul Reynolds’ previews of the leagues and in my own fantasy league of recent years. Some players will now have their entire careers available online and instantly, whereas the more experienced, or just plain old, players will have to resort to guesswork to extrapolate a career.
What is does allow is a review of certain categories of statistics, since 2011 and see who is close to what landmarks for the 2016 season. In a toe-dipped-in-the-water sort of way, here are some of the possibilities I can see in the figures to date.
Wickets
Susheel Kumar is the leading wicket taker for the period 2011-2015 with an impressive 205 wickets, including a 7-13.
Conor “Dorian Grey” Gibbons continues to ply his trade with Malahide and is now just 17 wickets from passing 200. Of course Conor’s actual career total is a awful lot higher than 183, and probably includes the wickets of C.B. Fry and W.G. Grace.
Target landmark.
200 wickets
Conor Gibbons needs 17; Rush’s Adam Ellison needs 29 and Renjith Nair needs 40, which is a tough ask, but a target worth chasing.
150 wickets
13th leading wicket taker for the past 5 years is Patrick Mount and he only requires, and in fact may already have, one more wicket for 150. Pembroke’s Fiachra Tucker needs 4 more and Manpreet Singh needs just 7. Khalid Chaudhary and Roger Kear both need 8 wickets, whilst 9 away are Terry Richardson and Duane Harper.
Ravi Mehta and Gareth Delany need 10, whilst Craig Senior needed 11, but has now brought that down to 9 having bagged a couple last weekend.
Luke Clinton and Joe Morrissey require 15 each.
The top 100 wicket takers over the past 5 years have all taken at least 100 wickets.
Overs
In terms of overs bowled, Conor Gibbons is only 36.1 overs short of having bowled 1,000 overs in five seasons. One can only think he missed a game somewhere. Padraic Flanagan is his closest challenger and is a whole 158.3 overs behind.
Target landmark
1,000 overs Conor Gibbons is 36.1
800 overs Susheel Kumar needs 8.3 overs, whilst Renjith Nair is short by 173 deliveries.
700 overs. Manpreet Singh is only 3.3 overs short of this target and Nitin Sharma needs to bowl a further 17.1 overs. Naseer Shoukat needs 25.1 which is only two less than Paul Rodgers. Adam Ellison is next, needing 28.3, which is three deliveries less than Eddie Richardson.
600 overs. Closest without reaching 600 overs is Tom Anders who is just 12 balls from 600 overs. Contender for longest name, Chaiyapron Sitthisan Burke is only three overs away and Mohammed Sheraz is 4.2 overs short. Pembroke’s David Murphy has been worked hard and needs to bowl a further 5.2 overs and Nagesh Yadav is only two balls behind him.
There are at least 100 bowlers who have delivered at least 480 overs. Ouch.
Runs.
Top run scorer over the past five seasons is Thomas Fisher with 3,388. Second place is taken by Lynal Jansen with 3,325 and third is Simranjit Singh with 3,288. Andrew poynter, Khizar Khan, Reinhardt Strydom and Alex Matthews are the other players to have passed 3,000 runs in five years.
Target landmarks
3,000 Railway Union’s Kenny Carroll is nearest, requiring 75 to reach this landmark, whereas Alan Parkinson is 96 short. Mark Collier is 153 short and Shahid Iqbal a further 24, that is 177 short.
2,500 Vijay Gopal is on exactly 2,500 and so will have to search for 3,000 next, but looking eagerly at 2,500 are Paul Byrne (16 short), Sam Murphy (70 short), Masud Ahmed (72 short) and Max Sorenson (82 short).
2,000 It is tight in the race to 2,000 with 9 players needing less than 50 additional runs. They are; Mubasher Siddique (1), Muhammad Raza (1), Joji Mathew (1), Robert Neavyn (3), Joe Carroll (15), Asim Nazir (16), Conor Armstrong (30), Furqan Ul Haq (35) and Tayyab Rashid (46).
The top 99 run accumulators over the past five years have all scored at least 1,700 runs.
The most unwanted statistic is the amount of time a batsman had strode to the middle full of hope, courage and anticipation and left without a single run to their name. A score of nil, nada, nothing. It is horrible. A long walk. The long walk.
Leading the way in this category is Alan O’Hara with 24 and a rate of 343 ducks every 1,000 innings.
Here are the top ten with the number of ducks and the number of ducks per 1,000 at bats.
24 ducks Alan O’Hara 343 ducks per 1,000 innings
22 ducks Adam Gilbride 206
21 ducks Conor Gibbons 457
Diarmuid Lynch 219
20 ducks Mohammed Sheraz 244
19 ducks Simon Rice 211
Patrick Monks 192
18 ducks Padraic Flanagan 254
Faran Khalid 228
Mick Cotter 136
Most centuries belongs to Lynal Jansen with 9 with Pat Collins, Reinhardt Strydom and Simranjit Singh all have 7 centuries. Over 100 batsmen have scored more than one ton.
Most half centuries belongs to Andrew Poynter with 30. Twelve players have scored at least 20 fifties.
Andrew Poynter (30)
Khizar Khan (26), Lynal Jansen (26), Thomas Fisher (26),
John Anderson (23), Simranjit Singh (23), Kenny Carroll (23),
Srikanth Boddu (22), Reinhardt Strydom (22)
Bill Coghlan (21), Shahid Iqbal (21),
Brian Gilmore (20).