Todays sees the first of the major finals days for club cricket in Leinster, the LHK Insurance Leinster Senior [Alan Murray] T20 Finals. There are three games in all and they take place in Sydney Parade from 10.30 when Clontarf take on Leinster. This is followed at 14.00 with the second semi-final between YMCA and Merrion and then the final at 17.00. The weather is set fair so a great day is in prospect.

T20 matches are played to narrow margins. This increases the chances of upsets. It is one of the things that make the shorter form of the game so popular. A couple of wickets at a crucial time. An over that goes for a lot of runs. A spectacular catch or run out. Any of these can turn a match.

So standings, form, averages and history do not matter all that much when the teams meet on the field. That of course does not stop us speculating on the likely outcome.

The most important input is probably form this season. Passage through the Quarter Finals has kept pretty close to the outcome from the preliminary rounds. The ranking order was Clontarf [1], YMCA [2], Merrion [3] and Leinster [5]. So if everything goes to current form we can expect a Clontarf v YMCA final with the former the eventual winners. Of course we have also had a few T20 Premier League re-fixes that could be also be relevant. Clontarf earlier in the season had a comfortable eight wicket win over Leinster.

But it is not just about the teams - who are the players that might be expected to make the telling contribution. In terms of total runs scored the most successful Alan Murray T20 batsman is Andrew Poynter [Clontarf] with over 1559 runs [back to 2011] at an average of 43.31. Other players in the top ten run getters who may feature today are Joe Carroll [Leinster] with 1016 runs at an average of 46.18 and John Anderson [Merrion] with 862 and an average of 35.92. Simi Singh [YMCA], who is not included in the pre-announced squad, could still make an appearance and he has scored 919 runs at an average of 48.37.

The equivalent figures for bowlers should help explain why Clontarf have been such a force in this form of the game in recent years with three players in the top ten - Joe Morrissey [52 wickets - economy 6.92], Sameer Dutt [39 at 7.58] and Shariful Islam [37 at 5.21]. Only Joe Carroll [61 at 6.12] and Simi Singh [47 at 5.78] appear on the top ten list for the other sides.

But it is not historical averages that really matter but current form. Selected averages of participants from this years competition are set out below. 

Finally, experience matters. How have the clubs done in the recent past. Clontarf of course are the current Leinster T20 Champions. But all the participants today have won the competition in the relatively recent past. The following table sets out the SF/F results from 2011.

Not too much can be read into statistics. Clontarf go into the Final Day with the best record and must be counted as favourites. But as with all T20 competitions they rarely go exactly as planned. 

Final day squads [as announced]

YMCA: Tector J, Barnes J, Parkinson J, Tector H, Tector T, Abassi A, Gunning O, Gamble R, Thompson M, Murphy S, Streek S, Shukla A.

Clontarf: Joe Morrissey, Declan Gallagher, Sharifal Islam, Eoghan Delany, David Delany, Waqar Azmat, Sameer Dutt, Conor Kelly , Bill Coghlan, Obus Pienaar, Robert Forrest

Leinster: G Dockrell, M. Patel, G. Delany, J. Carroll, F. O'Sullivan, S. Bahadur, D. Coad (wk), T. De Beer, B. Azhar, E. McKay, C. McKay

Merrion: D Joyce, J Carty, J Anderson, D langford-Smith, T Kane, P Mehta, M Lewis, P Tice, T Stanton, S Stanton, M Neville, JJ Walsh.

While one can never be sure about late changes, from the announced squads Simi Singh and Andrew Poynter do not figure. On the other hand there are ruturns to the colours for Eoghan Delany [Australia] and Max Neville [injury]. There is also a first inclusion for T deBeer for Leinster.