R Smith [Merrion] gained an impressive 249 points in the past week and as a result now tops the table having been 11th last week. He now has a lead of 44 points over the pursuing pack. Of course his points this week may have been due to exceptional performances, or perhaps due to numerous result cards being entered onto the system. Late and lost cards can be the bane of the administrator’s life.
We have a large number of categories this week, whereas next week we will go with the club-by-club analysis of the major categories.
2,107 players have now taken to the field this season and to be in the top 20 does mean the top 1% of all players. With less than a month remaining in the season, very little silverware has actually been decided, apart that is from the cup finals that have taken place. In other words, it is still all to play for, before whites get dumped back in the attic until 2016. Enjoy the days when the weather relents and you can once more throw your body into the workout that is cricket.
720,940 points have been allocated between the 2,107 players, an average of 342 points per player. The average number of games per player is 8, which fits nicely into playing half a season plus one cup game. Perhaps if you match this number you only play home league games? If you were Mr. Average and played 8 games and scored 342 points, you would score nearly 43 points per game. Closest to being Mr. Average, in 840th place, is David McCarthy [Pembroke].
Overall Point Scorers
Merrion have 3 players in the top 5 Overall point scorers, whilst there are another 12 clubs with at least one player in the top 20. Two of the three Merrion players are starred on their First XI, with A Varma starred on the 4ths. The cream certainly does rise to the top.
1683 R Smith [Merrion]
1639 Simranjit Singh [YMCA]
1629 R Tariq [Clontarf]
1627 A Varma [Merrion]
1600 D Rhoda [Merrion]
1588 J Carroll [Leinster CC]
1569 S Anderson [Phoenix]
1516 M Collier [Clontarf]
1506 Robert Forrest [Clontarf]
1505 B Parchment [NCCC]
1501 Munir Khan [CSCC]
1449 Jono Cook [Pembroke]
1418 David Carthy [Rush]
1407 N Sharma [Merrion]
1403 N Thambi [Dundrum]
1385 N Johns [YMCA]
1378 A Malhan [NKCC]
1359 R Kear [Balbriggan]
1358 B Speake [Terenure]
1357 S Daniel [Dundrum]
Points per game
Sometimes a misleading statistic, but it does give players a chance to shine and appear in this column even though they might not be regulars, as much as their captains and teammates might wish they were.
196.00 Hamid Ali [ACC]
191.00 Player Unregistered [Herald]
129.00 T Dempsey [Phoenix]
126.00 B Ovenden [Phoenix]
113.00 S Kant Trikha [Carlow]
108.00 G Russell [Balbriggan]
102.17 R Butt [Carlow]
98.00 T Hashmi [NKCC]
96.00 H Akram [Knockharley]
94.12 D Rhoda [Merrion]
Total Runs
Whether anyone will reach 1,000 runs for the season depends on how many games players have left, but even these will be at the mercy of the weather. T20 re-fixes do not present the same opportunity to score heavily as the bats are swung harder but with a little less thought. Merrion again dominate this category with 4 players in the top 10. Clontarf are not far behind with 3 and there is a definite advantage to playing in a multi-team club.
873 R Smith [Merrion]
839 R Tariq [Clontarf]
819 S Anderson [Phoenix]
789 A D'Arcy [Clontarf]
788 Andrew Poynter [Clontarf]
775 N Johns [YMCA]
757 A Parkinson [Merrion]
721 Tom Fisher [YMCA]
713 V Dhiman [Merrion]
710 D Rhoda [Merrion]
Total Wickets
Like total runs this is a clear cut category with Pembroke this time taking the most spots in the top 11. A Varma’s lead has slipped to only 4 with his Merrion colleague, N Sharma, right on his tail, albeit 12% behind. The 50 wickets landmark isn’t the four minute mile, but it does look likely to fall before the season’s end. The Pembroke battle to be top wicket taker in the club is very intense with three bowlers separated by just one wicket.
48 A Varma [Merrion]
44 N Sharma [Merrion]
40 M Granger [Clontarf]
37 S Daniel [Dundrum] & R Kear [Balbriggan]
36 J Carroll [Leinster CC], Joe Prendergast [Pembroke] & Kieran Vulker [Pembroke]
35 Jono Cook [Pembroke]
34 Eddie Richardson [NCCC] & Daniel Coffey [Rush]
Catches
Safest hands do tend to belong to the ones who wear the gloves, but even with the gloves we all know just how hard keeping wicket can be. Overs and overs waiting for a tickle, their concentration has to be absolutely top drawer all of the time. They deserve every catch. The Forrest family are now at 58 catches and add in the 16 stumpings they have, then the family are up to 74 dismissals.
34 Robert Forrest [Clontarf]
27 Sam Murphy [YMCA]
25 Mick Cotter [Terenure]
24 Richard Forrest [Leinster CC] & J Grassi [NCCC]
23 R Smith [Merrion]
20 Diarmuid Lynch [Terenure], S Katta [Laois] & Neil Rock [Rush]
19 P Bhardwaj [Dundrum]
Stumpings
Stumpings are such a specialist skill, involving grace, co-ordination and rapid movement. One can not help but be impressed by those who make it look easy. Of course they do require the assistance of the batsman as he gropes for the ball.
11 Sam Murphy [YMCA]
10 Robert Forrest [Clontarf] & R Smith [Merrion]
9 Lorcan Tucker [Pembroke], A Taylor [Phoenix] & P Byrne [R&SPU]
8 Fintan McAllister [Malahide]
7 C Cunneen [THCC]
6 Richard Forrest [Leinster CC], N Griffin [Leinster CC], Dave Nugent [CSCC], M Ramazan [Laois] & D Ashley [Mullingar]
Centurions
Scoring one century in over 30 years (back garden cricket excluded) hardly qualifies me to comment here, but as a bowler who has often seen such skilled bats dispatch my efforts to all parts, I can not but be impressed by those who score big time and time again. S Kant Trikha is playing for Carlow and whilst he is a shining light for them, one hopes that he continues to enjoy his batting as much next season when undoubtedly Carlow will be promoted more than just the one league having done so well in the lowest Divisions. Again class does show here with Division 1 players throughout the list.
4 S Kant Trikha [Carlow]
3 Simranjit Singh [YMCA], H Archer [THCC] & Jack Tector [YMCA]
2 Fintan McAllister [Malahide], Andrew Poynter [Clontarf], S Anderson [Phoenix], Ivan Morgan [R&SPU], D Rhoda [Merrion], H Mac Donnell [Leinster CC], Tom Fisher [YMCA], A Hashmi [Lucan], S Dalton [NKCC] & B Singh Bhathal [Merrion].
Half Centuries
In these days of pure limited over cricket not everyone gets the chance to score centuries and this is shown in the fact that although 131 centuries have seen recorded, 843 half centuries have been seen. In longer forms of the game, such a conversion rate would be ridiculed, but when you might only have 40 overs to bat at most, it can be difficult to accumulate enough runs unless you take the IPL approach of going at every ball.
7 S Anderson [Phoenix] & R Smith [Merrion]
6 Andrew Poynter [Clontarf], B Speake [Terenure], Paul Ryan [NKCC], T Halliday [Leinster CC] & A Raffique [Phoenix]
5 Nic Pretorius [THCC], A Parkinson [Merrion], R Butt [Carlow], Niall McGovern [NCCC], R Tariq [Clontarf], N Johns [YMCA], S Mehdi Shah [Phoenix], H Manks [Malahide], N Shahzad [Phoenix], S Grobler [CCCC] & Declan Moore [RCCC]
Five Wicket Hauls
Limited overs cricket also affects the bowlers in Leinster, although some exceptional figures have been produced during the season. However, recording multiple five wicket hauls proves a bowlers consistency and ability. Only 11 bowlers out of the 1,531 have done so this season, whilst an additional 108 bowlers have taken five wickets in a game once. It is not easy to do and should be recognised as such.
4 M Granger [Clontarf]
3 J Carroll [Leinster CC]
2 M Collier [Clontarf], B Singh Bhathal [Merrion], Tahir Rasheed [Knockharley], Willie Clarke [Phoenix], Pat Carty [Merrion], M Thompson [YMCA], L Ali [Ashbourne], S Rahim [ACC] & Muhammad Javed [Dundrum]
Matches played
Usually the domain of youngsters who have the entire summer off and not easy for married men with families to compete. When you think that there are probably 25 weeks in the season, playing anything over this figure is giving up a lot of your time to the game. If you apply an average of 6 hours per game (including re-fixed T20 games and cup matches) this equates to nearly a full week of playing 24 hour cricket. Of course you’d have to find the lights and probably a dome in which to find a 24 hour period with no rain breaks, but what a week that would be!
32 A Varma [Merrion]
30 N Sharma [Merrion], R Smith [Merrion], Robert Forrest [Clontarf] & Richard Wing [Malahide]
29 Mick Cotter [Terenure] & F Page [Malahide]
28 R Tariq [Clontarf], M Lewis [Merrion] & W Kindley [Malahide]
Highest Individual Scores
As mentioned before, limited overs cricket does not assist in compiling massive scores, but still players are managing it. Perhaps there are IPL scouts in the country they’d do well to scout the rural games as Carlow, Slieve Bloom and Longford take 3 of the top 5 spots...
184 Peter Auret [SBCC]
156 S Kant Trikha [Carlow]
153 R Butt [Carlow]
147 Graham McDonnell [Pembroke]
143 S Sarfraz [Longford]
140 Simranjit Singh [YMCA]
138 Eoin Sheehan [Rush]
136 B Singh Bhathal [Merrion]
135* Jack Tector [YMCA]
135 B Speake [Terenure]
Ducks
At what point does topping a table such as this one, go from being a little embarrassing to a desirable thing? Would you prefer to see your name in lights and not at all, no matter the reason why? Peter Marshall has endeavoured to keep himself out of this list, albeit without success and now each opening run scored is cheered by his teammates. Any additional ducks see Peter trudging back to the pavilion head down as colleagues turn their heads and politely applaud. It does take a few minutes for the banter to begin. Peter plays this Saturday and I know he would rather score and score big than top this table again. Ironically this season Peter has scored more runs than ever before. It has just become feast or famine. I just hope he tucks in on Saturday.
7 Peter Marshall [Pembroke]
5 Richard Wing [Malahide], G Lynch [Terenure], S Kochappu [Dundrum], J Meier [YMCA], Padraic Flanagan [YMCA], S Mistry [CSCC], P Chase [Malahide], Declan Ryan [Greystones], D Wall [CSCC], Jason King [Bagenalstown] & Andrew Moore [Balbriggan]
Batting Averages
Some of these players have played once and scored well or have played a few times and retained their wicket every time, except once. It is the policy of this column not to impose qualification marks around these categories. It throws up new names and perhaps might encourage them to play more often.
156.00 K OHerlihy [Leinster CC]
137.00 H Yadav [ACC]
118.00 A McBride [Greystones]
91.33 M O' Brien [Malahide]
89.00 D Rooney [NCCC]
88.00 G Russell [Balbriggan]
82.12 S Kant Trikha [Carlow]
77.00 J Mockett [DUCC]
76.00 Mohammad Usman Mir [Leinster CC]
75.50 D Ruddock [Halverstown]
Most Runs without Dismissal
These players do not even have an average, despite scoring decent amount of runs. Sometimes it is injury that keeps them off the field and sometimes it is misfortune. But they do deserve their mention here.
126 Hamid Ali [ACC]
57 G Swift [Knockharley]
53 C Dickeson [Phoenix]
46 B Ovenden [Phoenix]
43 A Summers [Greystones]
41 A Vishwanathan [Cabinteely]
38 Glenn Cunningham [Pembroke]
35 Unregistered Player [Cabinteely]
34 L Delany [Leinster CC]
33 R Hattaway [Herald]
Most Overs Bowled
These are some of the hardest working players in cricket. They just keep going to the well one more time. Captains turn to them in times of trouble in the hope they will weave their magic and turn a game in their favour. These players must remain injury free and retain their form for the entire summer. Included in their number year after year is fantasy league favourite Conor “Dorian (not 50 shades of) Grey” Gibbons of Malahide. Again this is a category full of multi-team Clubs as these players need to bowl more and more in pursuit of wickets.
212.3 A Varma [Merrion]
201.2 N Sharma [Merrion]
170.1 S Streek [YMCA]
161 Conor Gibbons [Malahide]
157.2 Joe Prendergast [Pembroke]
155 Padraic Flanagan [YMCA]
154.2 Simranjit Singh [YMCA]
147.1 R Kear [Balbriggan]
146.4 Y Ali [YMCA]
144.5 Kieran Vulker [Pembroke]
Best Bowling Analysis
One-off wonders or consistent wicket takers, it does not matter. Each of these players here has had a day which will live long in their memories.
8-5 Munir Khan [CSCC]
7-49 N Anjum [WWCC]
7-30 Mick Cotter [Terenure]
7-24 Willie Clarke [Phoenix]
6-8 B Parchment [NCCC]
6-10 Ben Sisinni [Pembroke]
6-11 R Tariq [Clontarf] & V Krishna [Merrion]
6-14 A Abdullah [Cabinteely], W O'Neill [Mullingar] & Susheel Kumar [R&SPU]
Bowling Averages
Mainly part time bowlers appear here, as anyone bowling regularly will experience one day at least where they concede runs, runs and more runs, destroying their averages.
0.00 L Bingham [DUCC], Hamid Ali [ACC], & C McLoughlin-Gavin [THCC]
1.00 Sibu Jose [Swords]
2.00 H Rafiq [ACC] & O Sivanatham [ACC]
2.75 B George [Swords]
3.00 S Sreenivasan [Dundrum]
3.20 V Nautiyal [Mullingar] & T Dempsey [Phoenix]
3.33 M Quinn [Longford]
3.50 S Barik [ACC]
3.80 Farooq Mohammad [Tyrrelstown]
4.00 R Periyakaruppan [ACC], M Hughes [Dundalk] & P McShane [Clontarf]
Most Overs bowled without taking a wicket
The unluckiest bowlers, or perhaps the most economical bowlers, to whom captains turn to again and again hoping for success, but for these bowlers, one wicket would be a delight. Amazing to see Kevin O’Brien in this list, but 16 overs shows how few games Kevin has played in the Leinster Cup and Leagues this season between International, County and Caribbean commitments.
26.2 S Crawley [NCCC]
26 R Dixit [R&SPU]
21.4 E Chester [Phoenix]
20 Z Khuda Buksh [Terenure]
16 K O'Brien [R&SPU]
14 C McElhinney [CSCC] & P Kohli [DUCC]
13 J Fortune [Greystones], R Jaffer [Mullingar] & S Attwood [DUCC]
Most Matches played without scoring a run
Conor Gibbons owns this category and whilst he bats well down the order and does not get to the middle in even 20% of his games, you’d think a captain would promote him once to get that elusive run. It does show how his captain values him as a bowler.
23 C Gibbons [Malahide]
7 P Keating [Phoenix], D Power [Bagenalstown], K Jesu Ranjan [ACC] & David Cooke [YMCA]
6 J Lobo [ACC]
5 G McKeever [Dundalk], Josh Flynn [RCCC], V Mohanan [Clontarf], T Brawders [CSCC], Stephen Clarke [Rush] & C Mooney [Leinster CC]
Most Matches played without a duck
Not much of a category but one which many players would like to be in. One of my captains a couple of years ago did not even mention he hadn’t had a duck until the last game of the season. He went out to bat and scored his first run and celebrated like it was a century to the amusement of the fielding side.
27 V Dhiman [Merrion]
26 Sid Nair [Terenure]
24 Neil Rock [Rush]
21 B Thambi [Dundrum], Conor Kelly [Clontarf], Jeremy Dunleavy [Pembroke], Sean Rooney [NCCC] & A D'Arcy [Clontarf]
20 K Everard [THCC], J Kavanagh [Balbriggan], Hanan Maan [ACC] & E Sheehan [Rush]
19 C Donnelly [YMCA], Craig Senior [Pembroke], S Dev [Dundrum], Theo Lawson [Pembroke] & Simranjit Singh [YMCA]
Most Matches played without taking a catch
Some players enjoy fielding at long leg at both end, mainly for the exercise, but sometimes because they don’t fancy a chance of a catch. Some players try and try again to hang onto the flighted ball, but without success. Some curse their gods, and some just panic when the ball is in the air.
18 Andrew Jackson [R&SPU]
17 Venkat Puli [Merrion]
15 Vishal Singh [Merrion], S Willis [Pembroke] & A Darnell [CSCC]
14 T O'Neill [Leinster CC], B Cramp [Leinster CC], S Imran [Ashbourne], V Ayyannan Shettu [Clontarf], J Newland [Malahide], R Nair [Dundrum] & M Monteiro [ACC]
Players with more wickets taken than runs scored
AKA the bowlers picked for their bowling abilities not their all rounder status.
36 M Granger [Clontarf]
29 Conor Gibbons [Malahide]
16 David Murphy [Pembroke]
15 Anto Burke [Sandyford]
14 M Butler [Clontarf]
11 Alex Cusack [Clontarf]
10 J Lobo [ACC]
9 G Angel [Knockharley]
8 D Power [Bagenalstown], David Cooke [YMCA], P Keating [Phoenix], Niall Carroll [Leinster CC], C Purdue [Balbriggan] & M Lunson [Phoenix]
END.