Fantasy by Division - 6

Division 6

Champions – Railway Union 4

League MVP – D. Javed [Longford]

Division 6 yet again sees the league champions fail to produce the Fantasy point winner. Railway Union topped the table by 12.62% and in terms of games, by two victories more than either Merrion or Terenure. Merrion, in turn, ended the season in second place on account of picking up 8 more bonus points than Terenure.

The tightness of this division for the relegation slots can be seen clearly. Phoenix in seventh place were only 8.92% behind Castleknock in fourth. However, North Kildare fell to the bottom of the league with only 4 wins from 14 games and only 4 bonus points for 24.00%.

MVP D. Javed [Longford] finished 87 points ahead of N. Vorster [North Kildare] atop the fantasy overall points with 860 points, which is the lowest total to win a Divisional title so far. However, this was an eight team league and so only 14 games were possible for any player. If it had been a nine team division and points had been scored at the same rate his total would have reached 982. It is like comparing apples and carrots to compare divisional winning fantasy totals at the best of times, but when the number of teams is uneven it is impossible. The top ten point scorers in this Division were as follows.

1. 860 – D. Javed [Longford]
2. 773 – N. Vorster [North Kildare]
3. 759 – K. Khan [R&SPU]
4. 740 – C. Burke [Rush]
5. 735 – R. Murali [Merrion]
6. 725 – S. Sarfraz [Longford]
7. 714 – O. Shah [Castleknock]
8. 713 – C. Morgan [Terenure]
9. 682 – I. Maher [Longford]
10. 672 – S. Kumar [R&SPU]

231 players appeared in this 8 team Division, with 68 appearing just the once. With an eight team league there is a maximum of 14 games for any player. No-one in Division 6 managed the maximum, but a dozen players missed just one game and our MVP missed just two. The dozen who missed just one game were:

• K. Khan [R&SPU], R. Murali [Merrion], S. Sarfraz [Longford], O. Shah [Castleknock], I. Maher [Longford], S. Kumar [R&SPU], S. McCann [Rush], A. Mateen [Castleknock], R. Dixit [R&SPU], E. Sheehan [Rush], G. Horn [North Kildare] and C. Jones [Phoenix].

Despite two games less than some other leagues, three batsmen made it past 400 runs in 2013. The top five run scorers were:

1. 479 – K. Khan [R&SPU]
2. 428 – C. Morgan [Terenure]
3. 408 – V. Dhiman [Merrion]
4. 368 – MS Tariq [Castleknock]
5. 365 – S. Sarfraz [Longford]

Eight centuries were scored by eight different players. In order of highest score they were: C. Morgan 124 [Terenure]; V. Dhiman 113 [Merrion]; K. Khan 111* [R&SPU]; S. Doheny 109 [Rush]; S. Hussain 104 [North Kildare]; G. Wilde 103 [Rush]; T. Lynch 102 [Terenure] and; MS Tariq 101* [Castleknock].

Ger O’Brien [R&SPU] with 90, was the only player to reach the nineties and not push on to three figures. There were however, 53 half centuries were recorded by 38 players, with 13 players making more than one. Top of the list with 3 half centuries were K. Khan [R&SPU] and C. Morgan [Terenure]. The list of multiple fifty scorers is:

• 3 – K. Khan [R&SPU] & C. Morgan [Terenure].
• 2 – S. Sarfraz [Longford], Ger O’Brien [R&SPU], S. Reddy [Merrion], O. Shah [Castleknock], S. Shah [Phoenix], O. Ajmal [Castleknock], A. Nazir [R&SPU], C. Burke [Rush], Adam Chester [Phoenix], MVP D. Javed [Longford] and A. Javed [Longford].

 As with the other divisions we show two batting average tables. The top 5 batting averages (with no qualifications, but innings shown in brackets) were as follows:

1. 110.00 – Adam Chester [Phoenix] (2)
2. 72.00 – P. Byrne [R&SPU] (2)
3. 66.00 – P. Reddy [Merrion] (2)
4. 59.88 – K. Khan [R&SPU] (13)
5. 56.00 – G. Wilde [Rush] (2)

 The top five batting averages for batsmen who passed 320 for the season were:

1. 59.88 – K. Khan [R&SPU]
2. 53.50 – C. Morgan [Terenure]
3. 45.33 – V. Dhiman [Merrion]
4. 43.38 – S. Doheny [Rush]
5. 33.45 – MS Tariq [Castleknock]

There were batsmen who technically have an average of infinity, having scored runs and not been dismissed at all. They are shown here with their runs and number of innings: N. Shah (63/1), M. Nurulain (16/2) [both Castleknock]; U. Magsood (46/1) G. Lynch (8/1) [both Terenure]; L. Metcalfe (28/1), J. Farrell (26/1), C. Miller (4/1) [all Rush]; M. Lunson (25/1), M. Ahmad (4/1) [both Phoenix]; T. Gibbs (15/1), D. Paul (1/1) [both Merrion]; A. Saeed (4/1) [R&SPU]; G. Gilmour (4/1), A. Byrne (2/1) [both North Kildare] and; J. Brier (1/1) [Longford].

783 wickets fell to 131 bowlers in this Division. 103 bowlers took at least one wicket. The top 5 (and ties) wicket takers were:

• 21 – S. Kumar [R&SPU]
• 20 – S. McCann [Rush]
• 19 – N. Vorster [North Kildare] & R. Murali [Merrion]
• 18 – D. Javed [Longford], C. Burke [Rush] and R. Dixit [R&SPU]

The top five (and ties) bowling averages were as follows with the number of wickets taken in brackets also:

• 5.00 – N. Kenny [Merrion] (4)
• 5.67 – M. Imran [R&SPU] (6)
• 6.00 – S. Singh [Merrion] (4) & J. Machin [North Kildare] (1)
• 6.25 – B. Ovenden [Phoenix] (8)

When a cut off of a minimum of 16 wickets is applied the top 5 were:

• 13.24 – A. Saeed [R&SPU]
• 14.16 – N. Vorster [North Kildare]
• 15.50 – S. McCann [Rush]
• 16.32 – R. Murali [Merrion]
• 17.39 – D. Javed [Longford]

In order of the best bowling analyses, the players who took a five wicket haul were as follows, although no player managed to do it more than once. Top of the pile with the only six wicket haul was A. Joseph [Phoenix] against the eventual champions R&SPU.

• 6/29 – A. Joseph [Phoenix]
• 5/8 – B. Ovenden [Phoenix]
• 5/19 – A. Saeed [R&SPU]
• 5/21 – S. McCann [Rush]
• 5/23 – D. Snell [Terenure]
• 5/30 – R. Murali [Merrion]
• 5/39 - N. Vorster [North Kildare] & H. Southall [R&SPU]
• 5/44 – Rex Walsh [Merrion]

There was plenty of bowling in Division 6 with no bowler being worked to death by captains. The top five bowlers in terms of overs delivered were as follows.

• 82.0 – A. Mateen [Castleknock]
• 81.3 – O. Shah [Castleknock]
• 81.1 – S. Kumar [R&SPU] & R. Murali [Merrion]
• 77.5 – I. Maher [Longford]

114 players held at least one of the 311 catches this season in this Division. C. Morgan [Terenure] and G. Horn [North Kildare] had the most catches, although C. Morgan also had stumpings and so is assumed to have worn the gloves. The top five (and ties) were as follows (players who also had a stumping are shown with an *):

• 11 – C. Morgan* [Terenure] & G. Horn [North Kildare]
• 9 – S. Sarfraz [Longford]
• 7 – C. Jones* [Phoenix], N. Vorster [North Kildare], P. Monks and S. Doheny [Rush]

Two names who are definitely a keeper and not just a stopper are C. Morgan [Terenure] and E. Sheehan [Rush] who both had a Division leading 3 stumpings.

The top 5 and ties are:

• 3 – C. Morgan [Terenure] & E. Sheehan [Rush]
• 2 – M. Cotter [Terenure] & J. Ashraf [Merrion]
• 1 – C. Jones [Phoenix], S. Nadeem and MS Tariq [both Castleknock], C. Aramalla [Merrion] and Rowan Walsh [both Merrion] and Ger O’Brien [R&SPU].
  
• Only 26 players in this division failed to score at least one run, whilst most played only once, N. Scott-Hayward had three attempts in the middle.
• A. Khan [Longford] bowled 10 overs without taking a wicket and
• H. Rasheed [Longford] played in 11 games without taking a catch.

Player Unregistered was not seen in Division 6, the second league without him.

In terms of players used (including Player Unregistered), the league looks like this:

• 39 – North Kildare
• 37 – Merrion
• 30 – Rush
• 29 – Terenure
• 28 – Phoenix
• 27 – Castleknock
• 24 – Longford
• 17 –R&SPU

Disclaimer….

As with all of these articles, the views expressed therein of those of the author and definitely do not represent those of the Leinster Cricket Union. They might match your views, but if they do, it is more likely to be a co-incidence than anything else. They are to be considered merely the inconsequential ramblings of a fool. Any feedback or requests for individual, team, Club or all-encompassing statistics may be sent to craig@cricket.ie.