Division 2 review - The Hills romp to title

Division 2 stats

Leading all time run scorer (2011-2015) - Lynal Jansen (Rush) - 2655 runs @ 53.10
Most runs in a Division 2 season - Lynal Jansen (Rush) - 911 runs (2013)
Highest score - Robin Kelly - 219 - Pembroke 1 vs Rush 1 - Kenure - 5 June 2012
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2015) - Lynal Jansen(Rush) - 87 wkts @ 18.79
Most wickets in a Division 2 season - Joe Carroll (Leinster) - 30 wkts (2015) & Cory Edwards (Leinster) - 30 wkts (2012)
Best bowling - Malcolm Byrne - 7-16 - The Hills 2 vs Old Belvedere 1 - Milverton - 22 May 2011
Most matches - Shahid Iqbal (Rush) - 63 - (2011-2015)

Highest team score - 412-6 - Pembroke 1 vs Rush 1 - Kenure - 5 June 2012
Lowest team score - 57 all out - Dublin University 1 vs Rush 1 - College Park - 23 May 2015

Review

The Hills 1- Champions - (Predicted 1st) - Batting Rating 138 - Bowling Rating 145 - Overall Rating 283 - All Ireland Ranking 10 (-3 on year) - Leinster ranking 6 (-2 on year)

Whilst it was not the biggest surprise of the 2015 cricketing season, The Hills won Division 2 by a convincing margin, lifting their 10th league title in total. It was the second time they have won the second tier division in Leinster cricket (2005 was the first time), all of which can be listed some way behind their three Division 1/Senior League titles. Whilst it was a title predicted by all, it still had to be achieved, and despite a couple of hiccoughs, the title was won with the minimum of fuss. Their bowling attack was rated a bit better than their bowling, but closer analysis reveals the bowling was simply awesome. Throughout our league reviews, any bowler who takes more than ten wickets at an average of under 16 can be seen as a decent bowler. If any team has more than one such bowler, they are likely wto win the league. The Hills had five such bowlers, plus two more who averaged a touch over 16. Without clogging up pages and pages of stats (the full details can be seen at the bottom of the page), the splendid septet were Deon Carolus, Max Sorensen, Manu Kumar, Naseer Shoukat, Tomas Rooney Murphy, Luke Clinton and Mark Dwyer. A set of seven bowlers that would rank up at the top of any list of the top attacks in Leinster cricket in the last 30 years. For the last couple of seasons, the team's Achilles Heel has definitely been the batting, and the batting unit was probably lucky it had such a wonderful bowling attack to help. Only two players passed 200 runs, but that was all that was needed. Nicolaas Pretorious was back to his best, with 387 runs (at 48.38 and a strike rate of 123.64), whilst Mike Baumgart hit 260 (at 37.14, SR 74.07). Max Sorensen's batting also deserves a mention. He was the only player to score his runs quicker than Pretorious, hitting 173 runs in the 99 balls he faced in league cricket all year. He will be hugely missed. The only two blemishes were the league losses against Balbriggan and Leinster, when the batting spluttered. Against Balbriggan, they slipped from 52-3 to 82 all out (although the bowling nearly saved the day as Balbriggan lost five wickets for seven runs before winning by 3 wickets), whereas against Leinster the batting troubles were higher up the order, as they collapsed to 23-7. But those were mere blips, and Leinster cricket is all the better for having The Hills back in Division 1 in 2016.

Phoenix 1 - Runners up - (Predicted 3rd) - Batting Rating 121 - Bowling Rating 118 - Overall Rating 239 - All Ireland Ranking 28 (+1 on year) - Leinster ranking 10 (unchanged on year)

Phoenix will return to the top division of Leinster cricket in 2015, a situation that has been all to rare in recent years. They had an unbroken stay at the top table between 1999 and 2006, but since then only the 2011 and 2013 seasons have included Division 1 cricket (albeit in unsuccessful campaigns). Avoiding relegation will be the key for 2016. It was a pretty solid all round performance from Phoenix, although the five league losses will rankle. The two defeats to high flying The Hills are understandable, butfailing to chase 180 against Terenure, falling 33 short in a low scoring T20 game against Balbriggan, and coming out on the wrong side in another low scoring T20 against YMCA 2 weren't quite the performances of a top notch side. This is nit picking though - Phoenix achieved their number one objective, and a lot of players contributed. Head and shoulders above the others was Sam Anderson who scored 504 runs at 38.77 and 18 wickets at 16.56. Masud Ahmed scored 316 at 26.33, with five others passing 200 runs - Rory Anders, Tom Anders, Adam Chester, Ali Taylor and Matt Scott. Both Anders, as well as Scott, took more than ten wickets as well - Phoenix had four of the nine players who took 200 runs/10 wickets in Division 2. The bowling role of honour is completed by Richard Lawrence (14 wickets at 11.21) and Matt Lunson (20 wickets at 10.20). Lunson has had an extraordinary couple of years - only Merrion's Nitin Sharma has taken more Division 1-4 wickets than Lunson (73 to 63), but Lunson's average is better than anyone else who has taken more than 30 wickets - he comes top with 63 at 12.63, with YMCA's Kamal Merchant next with 47 at 12.87.

Leinster 1 - 3rd - (Predicted 2nd) - Batting Rating 104 - Bowling Rating 99 - Overall Rating 203 - All Ireland Ranking 23 (-3 on year) - Leinster ranking 9 (unchanged on year)

Leinster have been tussling with Phoenix for much of the last 150 years, and 2015 was another one in which they went head to head, with Phoenix coming out on top this time. The crucial match between the teams was on August 22nd, with the victors being strong favourites to go on win the second promotion spot. Th efact that Phoenix won by a crushing 179 wins was a fair result, and highlighted the difference between the two. For Leinster, it was yet another season as a mid-table Division 2 team, but they will keep knocking on the door, and will have another good chance for promotion in 2016. Batting and bowling were both a little under-powered, and both were reliant on Joe Carroll. The Hiberno-Taswegian was again the rock on which Leinster's batting and bowling were built, scoring 403 runs at 33.58 and 30 wickets at 12.00 - a record (held jointly with former Leinster overseas player Corey Edwards) for wickets in a Division 2 league season. The bowling had more who could be happy with their season - Conor O'Gorman had is first major season with the ball, with 17 wickets at 20.65, Bilal Azhar took 14 wickets at 26.29, and Tom Ritchie took 11 at 28.45. Having three bowlers averaging over 20 means you will always struggle to win matches unless your top four is Ponsford, Greenidge, Bradman and Lara, and Leinster's wasn't. Caroll did his best, but only Hugh MacDonnell passed 200 (284 at 25.82). There is the making of a decent team down Rathmines way, and they will challenge next year.

Balbriggan 1 - 4th - (Predicted 4th) - Batting Rating 79 - Bowling Rating 99 - Overall Rating 178 - All Ireland Ranking 36 (-2 on year) - Leinster ranking 13 (-2 on year)

It's all too easy in these reviews to be unduly harsh. Balbriggan must look back at some of their losses, and wonder how it happened, and what might have been. But Balbriggan have finished the 2015 season with their joint best ever league finish - 12th for the second year running, and have some great victories to be entered into the club's history, including wins over The Hills, Phoenix and Rush (twice). Thise victories should not be sniffed at, especially the match against the Hills, when a brilliant bowling display saw the champions elect being bowled out for 82, before a nervous batting display saw Balbriggan collapse from 76-3 to 79-8 before Tayyeb Hassan hit a nerveless boundary to seal that famous win. That worrisome batting rating of 79 is translated into only two players passing 200 runs for the season, Muhammad Farrukh again being best with 347 runs at 34.70, and Adrian Harper hitting 213 (although at only 17.75). It was the bowling that rescued the team time and time again, with no less than six bowlers taking ten wickets. John Mooney (perhaps not surprisingly) was the most impressive, with 18 at 13.06m with Andrew Moore also being good with 11 at 15.55. Roger Kear had another excellent season with 17 wickets at 16.18, and Farrukh was as parsimonious as ever - 17 wickets - 3.24 runs per over. Khalid Bilal and Duane Harper also had big wicket hauls, although at a slightly more expemsive rate. It makes one think, that with those seven players, in addition to others such as Shammy Ahmed, Barry Archer, and a few more of the younger players coming through, that Balbriggan could have a decent side for the next few seasons.

Rush 1 - 5th - (Predicted 5th) - Batting Rating 122 - Bowling Rating 88 - Overall Rating 210 - All Ireland Ranking 33 (+3 on year) - Leinster ranking 11 (+2 on year)

You only have to look at the stats at the top of this article to see how successful Rush players have been over the last five seasons. Although Rush being in Divisoin 2 for each of those five seasons distorts the stats a little bit, there is no denying that Lynal Jansen has been the dominant player for Rush for the last five years, and this year over took Jim Govan of Malahide to become the leading wicket taker in Division 2 - to go with the title of leading run scorer as well. With Shahid Iqbal also playing a major part (he is 2nd on the run scoring chart, and 4th in the wicket taking chart), Rush are never going to be short of talent - at least not whilst those two are still playing. The trick is twofold - incorporating others into the team, and getting otherd to commit to a full season. That's not quite as easy as it sounds - for example Stephen Doheny was playing cricket elsewhere (one of the most exciting talents around scored 238 runs at 29.75 in the eight matches he was available). Alan Butterly scored 286 at 31.78 (and in fact is one of the province's most under rated players, coming in at 5th on the Division 2 run scoring totals since 2011). Aside from the batsmen only Allan Eastwood took 10 wickets or more (15 at 21.93), along with the normal very impressive returns from Jansen and Iqbal. In the seven games that Rush lost, there were only three Rush 50s - one each from Jansen, Iqbal and Butterly. With more 50s, those losses will be turning to wins.

Terenure 1 - 6th (Predicted 6th) - Batting Rating 97 - Bowling Rating 98 - Overall Rating 195 - All Ireland Ranking 35 (unchanged on year) - Leinster ranking 12 (unchanged on year)

There must have been a been a certain amount of apprehension in Terenure before the season started, with a good few changes in personel over the winter, leaving all but the most committed of Terenure supporters fearing the worst. After six matches, the team had six victories (the win over Trinity counted double); Division 2 status was virtually confirmed, and the teams worries disappeared instantly. Much of that was down to the dogged batsmanship of overseas player Ben Speake. Speake may not have been the flashiest stroke player around (of the 21 players who scored 200 runs in Division 2, only four had a slower strike rate), but he dug in to great effect, winning the first game of the season against Balbriggan almost singlehandedly, and giving a large sense of solidity to the Terenure top order. He got 566 runs in total, at the excellent average of 47.17. The other factor that figured large in Terenure's avoidance of relegation was the dragging out of retirement of Ken Brennan, who added another 19 wickets (at 13.55) to his career tally. That amount of skill and experience is tough to replace. James Smith contributed 19 wickets as well, although at a more expensive 22.3 runs per wicket, whilst Sukhpal Singh joined the club in mid-July and had a massive impact, taking 12 wickets at 12.92. Subramanya Ramnathpur was another who had a great debut season, with 210 league runs along with 19 wickets at 18.05. Finally another player who was definitely not in his debut season, as Kenny McDonald put in another good season at the coalface with 245 runs at 24.5. All in all, a season that was better than mist imagined, although it shouldn't paper over the cracks - Speake and Brennan will need playing every game again in 2016.

YMCA 2 - 7th (Predicted 8th) - Batting Rating 86 - Bowling Rating 80 - Overall Rating 166

Most intersted parties would have a tinge of sympathy for YMCA 2. Teams at the bottom end of Division 2 tend to be aiming for five wins in order to avoid relegation. YM managed it, but still went down. A large player turn over is a reality for any second team in Division 2, and YMCA were no exception,. using 34 players in total. It meant that very few played a full season - Alan Lewis played more than anyone else with 12 of the 13. Age came out top with bat in hand, as Angus Dunlop hit 281 runs at 28.1, including a never to be forgotten innings against Leinster, hitting a 73 ball 115, including 37 runs off one seven ball over. There was little support though, and no one else scored more than ALan Lewis' 192 runs at 16. The ball was a lot better, and with youth on top. Harry Tector added to his 179 runs, with 11 wickets at 16.91, and fellow youth player Aviral Shukla took 10 at 23.30. A slightly less youthful Yogesh Kashyap matched Tector's 11 wickets, the old Old Belvederian's eleven costing 18.82.

Dublin University 1 - 8th (Predicted 7th) - Batting Rating 56 - Bowling Rating 77 - Overall Rating 133 - All Ireland Ranking 50 (-4 on year) - Leinster ranking 14 (unchanged on year)

It's probably best not to dwell too much on Dublin University's season. Perhaps it was just the cyclical nature of university cricket, perhaps other factors were at play. But plain and simply, it was only the match against YMCA 2 where there was a contest. Trinity put up a decent total of 221-9, with Will von Behr (89) and Mark Strong (56) scoring the only 50's of the season for the students. But solid batting from all of YM's top order got them home by 3 wickets, with two balls to spare, and Dublin Universlty's only chance of a win all season had gone. Only two players would really look back on the season with satisfaction. Von Behr scored 174 runs at 29.00, and YM's Padraic Flanagan took 9 wickets at 13.67.

Division 2 batting averages 2015 (Qualification 100 runs)

Division 2 Bowling averages 2015 (Qualification 6 wickets)