Do you get mentioned in this week’s Fantasy League?
Is the real summer here now? That bright yellow circle in the sky seems to have returned and it will mean a complete overhaul of the cricket bag. Out will go the thermal leggings and undershirts and in will come the short-sleeved shirts as well as the beanie replaced by the floppy hat. If nothing else the weight of the bag will be reduced dramatically.
The selection difficulties of the past month or so will be eased as the Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate students emerge from their darkened study rooms and exam halls, blinking into the sun. Captains will once again have some slack as players start their summer holidays with their families. One might almost say that the real cricket season starts here. June’s starring lists will have a far lower average age than those before.
Of course by this stage sides might have already floundered in enough games to put league titles and cup runs beyond them and will travel to games without pressure. These games can be some of the most enjoyable of the season. Cricket for cricket’s sake, with appeals that are queries of whether a batsman is out rather than recognition and celebration that a bowler has hit pads, or it would have hit the pads if that wooden thing in the batsman’s hands hadn’t got in the way.
One thing that doesn’t change though is the accumulation of points for the Fantasy League. Runs, wickets and catches still bring forth their reward in terms of points and what do points mean? No, sadly not prizes, just bragging rights, whether just within a club or even a team, or for the elite, within Leinster.
This week’s leader can rightly claim to head a list of over 1,500 players. Internationals players, who have appeared on the world stage, to old stagers and young guns, all are striving for personal landmarks or combining for team goals.
If you want to know any facts or figures you can contact the author by twitter @FantasyTableLCU or by email at tangylemon@hotmail.com.
One thing that will have to improve is the submission of result cards and reports on Umpires. Paul Reynolds informs me that 45, yes forty-five games have yet to be fully submitted. That equates to 990 player games not yet included in the Fantasy Table. It is a large chunk of information that is missing. It affects not only this columns statistics, but also league tables and cup draws. Please ensure that YOUR teams results are all submitted. It would be a shame for a player to miss out on due recognition or for a team to be penalised and missing out on a title due to poor administration. So ask your captain if he or she is up-to-date on this vital area.
These are the games missing from the database. Games that go all the way back to the days of April when catches put down could be blamed on cold hands and drinks needed to be hot. 21 Clubs are deficient in one way or another, with Leinster and R&SPU being the worst offenders. Sort it out folks.
DATE INFO DUE FROM COMPETITION HOME AWAY
26 May 2015 Adamstown 1 YMCA Salver Adamstown 1 Pembroke 3
30 May 2015 Adamstown 1 Division 6 Adamstown 1 North County 3
07 June 2015 Adamstown 4 Minor Cup Adamstown 4 Leinster 7
20 May 2015 Balbriggan 3 R C Trophy Balbriggan 3 Ashbourne 1
26 May 2015 Civil Service 2 YMCA Salver Civil Service 2 Mullingar 1
09 June 2015 Clontarf 1 Alan Murray Cup Clontarf 1 North County 1
30 May 2015 Cork County 1 Senior Cup (Open) Cork County 1 Railway Union 1
26 May 2015 Dublin University 3 R C Trophy Dublin University 3 Greystones 3
07 June 2015 Dundalk 2 Division 15 Dundalk 2 Civil Service 4
03 June 2015 Greystones 3 R C Trophy Greystones 3 Dundrum 3
07 June 2015 Knockharley 2 Middle 2 Cup Knockharley 2 Civil Service 2
07 June 2015 Laois 2 Middle 2 Cup Laois 2 Pembroke 4
31 May 2015 Laois 3 Division 13 Laois 3 Pembroke 6
24 May 2015 Leinster 2 Division 3 (Open) Leinster 2 Phoenix 2
27 May 2015 Leinster 2 Division 3 (Open) Leinster 2 North Kildare 1
31 May 2015 Leinster 2 Senior 2 Cup Leinster 2 The Hills 2
07 June 2015 Leinster 4 Middle 2 Cup Leinster 4 Clontarf 4
26 May 2015 Leinster 7 R C Trophy Leinster 7 Tyrellstown 1
07 June 2015 Merrion 5 Middle 2 Cup Merrion 5 North Kildare 2
27 May 2015 Merrion 8 R C Trophy Merrion 8 Pembroke 6
26 May 2015 North Kildare 2 YMCA Salver North Kildare 2 Merrion 4
04 June 2015 North Kildare 3 R C Trophy North Kildare 3 Laois 3
07 June 2015 North Kildare 4 Division 16 North Kildare 4 Adamstown 5
30 May 2015 Pembroke 5 Division 11 Pembroke 5 Rush 3
19 May 2015 Pembroke 6 R C Trophy Pembroke 6 Railway Union 6
09 June 2015 Phoenix 1 Alan Murray Cup Phoenix 1 The Hills 1
06 June 2015 Phoenix 3 Middle Cup Phoenix 3 Pembroke 3
07 June 2015 Phoenix 6 Division 15 Phoenix 6 Clontarf 6
26 May 2015 Railway Union 3 YMCA Salver Railway Union 3 Dundrum 2
07 June 2015 Railway Union 3 Division 5 Railway Union 3 Terenure 2
31 May 2015 Railway Union 6 Division 13 Railway Union 6 Dundrum 3
03 June 2015 Railway Union 6 R C Trophy Railway Union 6 Merrion 8
06 June 2015 Railway Union 6 Division 13 Railway Union 6 Swords 2
06 June 2015 Ringcommons 1 Division 10 Ringcommons 1 Slieve Bloom 1
07 June 2015 Rush 3 Division 11 Rush 3 Castleknock 2
26 April 2015 Rush 4 Division 15 Rush 4 Dundalk 2
04 June 2015 Rush 4 R C Trophy Rush 4 Phoenix 5
09 June 2015 Rush 4 R C Trophy Rush 4 Mullingar 3
07 June 2015 Swords 2 Division 13 Swords 2 Dublin university 3
09 June 2015 Terenure 1 Alan Murray Cup Terenure 1 Pembroke 1
08 June 2015 The Hills 2 Tillain Cup The Hills 2 Clontarf 2
16 May 2015 Wicklow County 2 Division 14 Wicklow County 2 Leinster 7
01 June 2015 Wicklow County 2 R C Trophy Wicklow County 2 Tyrellstown 1
06 June 2015 Wicklow County 2 Division 14 Wicklow County 2 Bagenalstown 2
08 June 2015 YMCA 2 Tillain Cup YMCA 2 Railway Union 2
Overall Point Leaders Now using the information we do have here, is this week’s fantasy tables. Harry Tector continues to lead the province and has stretched his lead at the top. Here are all of the players who have in excess of 500 points. 1. Harry Tector YMCA 711 2. L Prior Tarf 660 3. N Thambi Ddrm 658 4. David Carthy Rush 591 5. A Varma Merr 584 6. M Collier Tarf 558 7. Paul Ryan NK 542 8. N Johns YMCA 533 9. R Kear Balb 521 10. Tomas Rooney Murphy Hills 516 11. A Sahota Sand 514 12. W Kindley Mal 512 13. N McGovern NC 509 14. Jinto Mathew Ddrm 505 15. B Parchment NC 503 16. S Babu Ddrm 501 17. Jerson Santhosh Swords 501 Points per game On a points per game basis, M. O’Brien’s one game was exceptional with 112* and 1 catch. Malahide would surely love to see him turn out more often. Declan Moore has at least played four games and is performing regularly and is still averaging 112 points. If he had played seven games at that rate he would be our overall leader. 1. M O' Brien Mal 152.0 2. Peter Auret Slieve 143.0 3. H Rafiq Adam 141.0 4. Albert Harper Balb 118.0 5. N Anjum Wexf 114.3 6. Declan Moore Ring 112.0 7. Matthew Strong Merr 110.0 8. Stephan Grobler Cork 108.3 9. H Fernando Castle 105.5 10. E Sykes Lein 104.5 11. M Murphy NC 104.0 12. A Rauf Rana Slieve 104.0 13. A Sarfraz Long 103.5 14. B Parchment NC 100.6 15. Shiraz Tariq Long 100.0Now we go to the individual categories and the leaders therein. Games Played 24 players have already played at least ten games and are surely all playing for more than one team. · 13 S Streek [YMCA] & Richard Wing [Mal] · 12 L Prior [Tarf] & C Donnelly [YMCA] · 11 A Sahota [Sand], Sean Rooney [NC], F Page [Mal] & M Godwin [Phoe] · 10 Harry Tector, Padraic Flanagan & Aviral Shukla [all YMCA], V Dhiman, N Sharma & A Varma [all Merr], J Grassi & A Abbasi [both NC], W Kindley [Mal], Gurmeet Singh [Sand], H Walser [Hills], Achmet Carr [Pemb], E Hart [Bagenal], K O’Connor [Trinity], N Thambi [Ddrm]. Runs scored Two players have passed 300 runs this season and a further 15 are through 250 runs. Here are the top 5 run scorers. 1. 334 A Hasmi [Lucan] 2. 309 N McGovern [NC] 3. 299 A Parkinson [Merr] 4. 297 Richard Wing [Mal] 5. 293 N Johns [YMCA] Wickets taken Overall leader, Harry Tector, also leads wickets taken being the first and only (to-date) bowler to reach 20 wickets. In total, 8 players have taken 15 wickets or more, including Pembroke’s Harry Balbirnie, who has shot into the table on the back of a six wicket haul, which didn’t appear in last weeks results. 1. 20 Harry Tector [YMCA] 2. 18 A Varma [Merr] 3. 17 L Prior [Tarf] 4. 16 R Kear [Balb] & S Streek [YMCA] 5. 15 Mick Collier [Tarf], M Nurulain Boda [Castle] & Harry Balbirnie [Pemb]. Five Wicket Hauls & Best Bowling Analysis 40 bowlers have taken five or more wickets in an innings and therefore have earned 10 bonus points in addition to the 20 points per wicket. The best are shown under the category Best Bowling Analysis. Two players have taken seven wickets in a game. 1. 7/30 Mick Cotter [Ter] 2. 7/49 N Anjum [Wexf] 3. 6/9 William Clarke [Phoe] 4. 6/14 Susheel Kumar [R&SPU] 5. 6/19 Harry Balbirnie [Pemb] & Sean McCarthy [Tarf] 6. 6/33 Jeremy Dunleavy [Pemb] 7. 6/35 S Rahim [Adam] 8. 6/39 M Collier [Tarf] 9. 6/41 E Conway [Rush] Most Ducks V Mohanan will be delighted he is not on his own with four ducks any more and he is likely to be overtaken soon enough. 556 players have had at least one duck and many more will no doubt follow over the coming weeks. Here are the 16 players with three or more. · 4 E Hart [Bagenal], Declan Ryan [Grey], I Sabir [R&SPU], V Mohanan [Tarf]. · 3 Jithin Jose, Manpreet Singh & M Kakkar [all Lucan], Padraic Flanagan & D Ahmed [both YMCA], O Shorthose [Bagenal], M Hippolitus [Ddrm], G Lawler [Grey], Conor Shoebridge [Mal], V Kasana [Merr], S Ayyappath [Ter] and K O’Connor [Trinity] Highest scores and centuries. At the opposite end of the scale are the players with the biggest scores. Lucan’s A Hashmi is the only player to have two centuries, but another 29 players have reached triple figures. The top individual scores are headed by Slieve Bloom’s Peter Auret with only S Kant Trikha the other player past 150. · 184 Peter Auret [Slieve] · 156 S Kant Trikha [Carl] · 143 S Sarfraz [Long] · 130 A Hasmi [Lucan] · 126 David Carthy [Rush] · 125* Simranjit Singh [YMCA] · 120 B Singh Bhathal [Merr] · 119* Stephen JP Moreton [Tarf] · 117* N McGovern [NC] · 114* A D’Arcy [Tarf] Busiest Bowlers – Most Overs Bowled 25 Bowlers have sent down more than 50 overs, but this week’s “Boxer” (for those of you who have read or seen Orwell’s “Animal Farm”) is S Streek [YMCA] whose 81 overs is 17% more than any one of the 1,082 bowlers in Leinster cricket. · 81 S Streek [YMCA] · 69 A Sahota [Sand] · 68 N Sharma [Merr] · 65 Harry Tector [YMCA] · 63 Padraic Flanagan [YMCA] · 62 M Nurulain Boda [Castle] Half Centuries 193 batsmen have managed to reach 50 runs in an innings, of which 30 have done so twice and a select 5 have done so thrice. S. Grobler has made a half century every time he has walked to the middle. Now that’s what I call consistent. Here are the batsmen who have made three 50’s. · 3 Stephan Grobler [Cork], Paul Ryan [NK], S Mehdi Shah [Phoe], Declan Moore [Ring] and B Speake [Ter]. Batting Averages Batting averages are notoriously a difficult statistic, especially with no qualifying marks. For instance there are 99 players who have scored runs, but not been dismissed. This includes K O’Herlihy [Lein] 144 runs, M O’Brien [Mal], 112 runs and D David [Merr] 100 runs. Of those 1,346 players who have been dismissed and therefore actually have an average, three have an average better than 100.00 and a further 56 average between 50 and 100. The top three have all only been dismissed once and another dismissal could see them plunge down the averages. · 131.00 H Fernando [Castle] · 111.00 Neil Rock [Rush] · 101.00 David O’Riordan [Pemb] Bowling Averages Another difficult category, which can be manipulated by taking one cheap wicket and then retiring from bowling claiming a sore arm/back/calf etc.. However, Ray Stapleton [Bagenal] appears on this list and has ten wickets. 6 from this list, including the top 2, have only one wicket. · 1.00 Sibu Jose [Swords] & C Gomes [Adam] · 2.00 H Rafiq and O Sivanatham [both Adam] and A Ahmed [Slieve] · 3.00 Ray Stapleton [Bagenal], Joseph Thomas [Ash], S Sreenivasan [Ddrm] and M Thompson [YMCA] Bowling Economy Rates
214 bowlers are conceding a run a ball or more. However, one bowler is standing head and shoulders above the rest with a seemingly impossible economy rate of 54.00 runs per over.
· 54.00 K McDonald [Ter]
· 24.00 Andrew Kane [Trinity]
· 20.00 Mandeep Singh [Cab] & P Wilkinson [Grey]
· 19.00 W Zafar [Sand], K Mughal [Adam] and S Ayyappath [Ter]
· 17.33 Ali Yasir [Mull]
· 16.00 Neil Rock [Rush], Nicky Fusco [Wick], S Hussey [Merr], B Dabhade [Civil] & L Woodhouse [NC]
Special mention to G Muralidhar [Swords] who has bowled 5 overs without conceding a single run, whilst Ray Stapleton [Bagenal] again excels with the ball in hand having bowled 22 overs for just 30 runs and an economy rate of 1.31 runs per over.
Most points earned by batting
This is adding up the number of runs and bonus points earned by batting and gives an overall batting point leader board. Six players have passed 300 batting points.
· 384 A Hashmi [Lucan]
· 349 N McGovern [NC]
· 329 A Parkinson [Merr]
· 317 Richard Wing [Mal]
· 316 Tomas Rooney Murphy [Hills]
· 313 N Johns [YMCA]
Most points earned by bowling
This category adds those points earned for wickets, plus the bonuses for five wicket hauls. Eight players have exceeded 300 points.
· 400 Harry Tector [YMCA]
· 360 A Varma [Merr]
· 350 L Prior [Tarf]
· 320 S Streek [YMCA] & R Kear [Balb]
· 310 Harry Balbirnie [Pemb] & M Collier [Tarf]
· 300 M Nurulain Boda [Castle]
Most points earned in the field
The final category this week includes the points for turning up plus points earned for catches and stumpings. Wicket keepers will tend to dominate this category, but no one has earned more than 300 points here.
· 285 Sam Murphy [YMCA]
· 245 Richard Forrest [Lein]
· 200 Robert Forrest [Tarf] & J Grassi [NC]
· 195 H Habib [Adam]
· 190 N Thambi [Ddrm] & R Shoebridge [Mal]
· 180 L Prior [Tarf], David Carthy [Rush] and Mick Cotter [Ter]
That’s it for this week, just over 2,000 words, which is more than enough on such a sunny day. I’m now off to a starring and selection meeting and to enjoy the summer. It might not last too long, but as I am playing in Dublin University on Saturday I hope it lasts long enough for that and my cup game versus Lucan on Sunday. I just hope that we catch A Hashmi off guard....