IBI CORPORATE FINANCE CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW – AUGUST 23RD!

Seemingly all-of-a-sudden we’re right into the business end of the Championship, as this weekend will see us breeze past the halfway stage and into the final two rounds of fixtures with an excellent idea of who will come out on top for the 2025 season.

Currently North County sit atop the ladder, however they suffered a chastening defeat to second placed Balbriggan last weekend, and the Irish Cup Champions will no doubt fancy their chances of hunting down their near neighbours before this campaign is finished with. Cork County are third and mathematically aren’t out of things just yet, whilst a pair of defeats for Rush has put any thoughts of a title charge for them on hold. Malahide leapfrogged The Hills at the foot of the table last weekend, however both sides face stiff opposition this time around.

This weekend leaders North County make the trip to The Mardyke to take on Cork County, who are in strong form, whilst Balbriggan are visitors to Malahide. Finally in Kenure, The Hills are the visitors to Rush, seeking to once again drag themselves out of the relegation spot.

RUSH VS THE HILLS

Near-neighbours Rush and The Hills do battle in Kenure, and whilst Rush came into the back-end of the season on the hunt to retain their Championship title, a loss in this game could see them dragged into a relegation dog-fight.

The home side have a brilliant reputation for producing excellent batters, and the latest cab off the rank is Finn McGee, who has shown brilliant form in the last couple of weeks, making 98* and 53 in his last two knocks, he’ll be in the number three slot just behind older brother Jack, who is a regular opener, whilst his partner has varied over the last number of weeks, with the likes of Harry Archer, Hashir Sultan and Jarred Barnes all players who could potentially fill that role. Nathan McGuire is their potential match-winner at number 4, whilst Abid Taniwal has also lit-up the league with some eye-catching performances this season, never more so than with his century against North County two weeks ago. Nasir Totakhil has adjusted well to the number 6 role, with the unit rounded out by Craig May and Asher Abbasi in all-rounder roles. On the bowling front, their ageless opening duo of Barnes and Allan Eastwood have been as strong as they have been for a number of years this season, Eastwood causing Cork County problems early on in last week’s chase in particular. They’ll be supported by their all-rounders in the form of May and Abbasi, whilst the spin is as usual high-quality and comes from McGuire’s offies and Totakhil’s left-arm orthodox respectively.

The Hills meanwhile have been dealt a mid-week blow with an injury to Tómas Rooney-Murphy looking to have ruled him out this weekend. This would likely see Sean McNicholl assume captaincy duties, whilst a return could be in the offing for Shazil Ahmed, who dropped out of the side last weekend. They would hope that Ahmed can help bolster the bowling unit, which has been strong for much of the season, alongside the likes of McNicholl and Cian Nulty, who are set to be the opening pair, Matthew Weldon’s left-arm seamers, and the off-breaks of Febin Manoj. The batting has been the area where The Hills will need significant improvement this weekend if they are to upset Rush. So far in the Championship season, the Milverton men have managed just 162 runs for the loss of 20 wickets, an average of 8.05 runs per wicket, compared with their oppositions in that time, who have outscored them by 400% per wicket, no doubt the side will have needed to reflect on their performances in the opening weeks. Hassan Shahid at the top of the order will be keen to impress against his former club, whilst the key men in the middle of The Hills batting line-up are Ollie Horlock and Nathan Rooney, Matthew Weldon has been in good form for much of this season, and his 54 last weekend showed his potential to build into a top-order batter is growing by the week.

The Hills’ bowling will need to get on top of Rush if they are to instil any level of confidence into their batting line-up that they can put together a good showing here. If Cian Nulty can knock over Finn McGee early on, it’ll give his side a fighting chance.

KEY BATTLE: Cian Nulty vs Finn McGee

MALAHIDE VS BALBRIGGAN

Balbriggan’s 12 Irish Cup heroes go to The Village this weekend with the aim of knocking over Malahide and putting themselves ahead of North County atop the table. Their side almost needs no introduction after last weekend’s heroics, not least the fact that both Cameron Rowe (112) and Chris de Freitas (74) then backed it up on Sunday with excellent performances to secure victory over their near-neighbours. That pair will bat at 3 and 4 in the order for the ‘Brigg this weekend, just ahead of their all-rounders, Dylan Lues and Seb De Oliveira, as well as Jordan Hollard, who’s simply outrageous innings last Saturday helped snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Connor Fletcher will lay the foundations at the top, whilst skipper Greg Ford could also prove key in the middle order for his side. With the ball, fresh off a midweek 5 wicket-haul for the Lightning, Matt Hollard will lead the way alongside De Oliveira, whilst Andrew Darroch will also look to bowl with good pace as first change. The off-spin duo of Lues and Hollard have proven to be economic throughout the season, with the bowling attack rounded out by Kashif Ali’s left-arm seamers.

Malahide will be acutely aware that another victory could prove absolutely vital to their chances of survival this season, their task is stiff, however a return for skipper James Newland would undoubtedly strengthen the bowling attack significantly alongside his deputy, Kelvin Donnelly. Jeremy Martins has shown no ill-effects of a quad niggle that troubled him earlier in the season, whilst it would prove extremely difficult to oust Ravi Kumar from his opening role in the side, after his opening spell claimed 3/14 from 10 overs, albeit against The Hills, last weekend. Robbie Foulkes’ cutters are another strong middle-overs option, whilst Timcy Khanduja has been filling the role left vacant by left-arm spinners Mike Frost and Jonathan Tall in recent weeks. With the bat, it’s Foulkes who is the key wicket for the side, and he will need to make runs if they are to out-gun Balbriggan here. Matt Ford and Martins are excellent operators in the middle order, however it was the return for the manager Alan Reynolds, who slotted himself in at the top of the order to good effect, and Adam Doyle, who’s solid tempo proved crucial at number three, that saw the side most of the way to victory last weekend.

Adam Doyle proved key for Malahide last weekend, however the ‘Brig will fancy their chances of tying him down through the middle overs, if Dylan Lues can get on top of him, there will be pressure all around Doyle to score, and this could prove to be enough for Balbriggan to choke Malahide’s batting line-up.

KEY BATTLE: Adam Doyle vs Dylan Lues

CORK COUNTY VS NORTH COUNTY

Finally we go to The Mardyke, where Cork County will fancy their chances of launching a late title bid should they beat the league leaders this weekend. They are however without two key-men this weekend, with skipper Diarmuid Carey giving us a brief insight into their side;

“Unfortunately this weekend we’re without both Bakhtyar Nabi and Brian Upman from last week’s side. Both were crucial to the victory, however we have an able replacement on the batting front, Ross Durity will open and allow Benji Marris to shift down to the middle order where Brian batted last weekend.

With Bakhtyar missing out, we’re taking the opportunity to get Prashant Singh into the line-up, he’s the regular front-line spinner in the second team and we’re hoping he can impress on debut”

It goes without saying that in the absence of this key duo, they will be looking to Mark Andrianatos to pick up his good form again, having fallen first ball last weekend, however it will no doubt be a massive boost to the side that they got a win on the board that didn’t involve the South African dominating proceedings.

North County meanwhile are another side which will have been boosted by the midweek exploits of one of it’s main men. Suliman Safi very nearly dragged Reds to a sensational run-chase in Bready with his 131 the stand-out knock on the day. He leads the batting line-up alongside Hunter Kindley and Eddie Richardson, who have done the bulk of the heavy lifting for their side this season. Jamie Grassi and Niall McGovern both added some middle-order resistance last weekend. Aside from those five, however, the depth within the unit isn’t strong, which was shown in a big way last time around. On the bowling front, Richardson and Abdul Ghaffar will need better support from the likes of Sean Sludds and Jake Devane if they are to give themselves a chance of restricting Cork’s batting this time around, whilst a visit to The Mardyke regularly means extra spin is needed, so it will be intriguing to see if they elect to bring in both Brandon Morris and Johan George to accompany regular offie Alan Joseph Mathew in the bowling attack.

Eddie Richardson is known for taking big wickets, and there’s not many bigger in a game involving Cork County than Mark Andrianatos, if he can knock over their overseas man, no doubt the Inch men will fancy their chances of victory in Cork this weekend!

KEY BATTLE: Mark Andrianatos vs Eddie Richardson

IBI CORPORATE FINANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23^RD, ALL 12 NOON STARTS

At Kenure, Rush vs The Hills

At The Village, Malahide vs Balbriggan

At The Mardyke, Cork County vs North County