IBI CORPORATE FINANCE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND-UP – MATCH DAY 2 (4TH MAY)

Three fixtures were fulfilled this afternoon in the IBI Corporate Finance Championship, as the Cork County vs The Hills fixture fell foul of the unseasonably poor weather around The Mardyke this week.

The first result of the day came in from Kenure, as having won the toss Terenure batted first and were instantly under the pump from the home side with each of their opening bowlers knocking over opening batters Dónal Vaughan and Séamus Lynch without scoring. Henry Dall was the only bright spark for the away side, stroking a fluent 44 from 56 balls before being Nasir Totakhil’s first victim, with the left-arm tweaker eventually finishing with 3/23. Two-fors from each of Jarred Barnes, Asher Abbasi and overseas Josh Doyle saw Terenure collapse to 129 all out. The runs were chased with ease, Nathan McGuire the stand out with 50 off 27 balls, supported by 28 from Doyle and 31 for Brandon Morris.

Meanwhile in Park Avenue, Railway Union batted first against Civil Service, and thanks to a fantastic maiden Senior ton for 15-year-old Rob O’Brien, compiled an above-par total of 264/7 in their 50 overs. O’Brien shared a partnership of 90 with Liam McCarthy who made 44 as the home side put the Service bowlers to the sword in the middle overs. There was a wicket apiece for Mubasher Siddique, Adnan & Asad Ahmadzai and Aamir Bafanda however overall the Service unit struggled. Sean O'Brien's opening spell saw him taking 3 of the first four wickets to fall, with the other taken by Piyush Sharma, as Civil Service struggled in the chase, stumbling to 68/6 when Sharma's spell finished with a second wicket, quickly followed by one for spinner Srihan Karpe. 6 runs later Karpe and Ashil Prakash produced the next quick pair of wickets with the score on 76, before the final two fell with the score on 113 to Sean O'Brien and Hedayatullah Khogiani to secure a 151 run victory for Railway Union.

Finally in Kilcock, North Kildare batted first and would certainly have had North County worried as after 19 overs they had moved to 103/2, however a wicket for Abdul Ghaffar dismissed half-centurion Josh Uddin and cleared the path for Simi Singh to rip NK’s middle order asunder. He took his first wicket with the score on 119, and finished his spell with 5/38 having dismissed Nurulain Boda with the score on 176. Waqar Azmat (59) and Bakhtyar Nabi (47) were belligerent with their tail-end effort, taking the final total to 249 all out. North County found themselves in trouble early on, as three wickets for Mohammed Zaman and a run out of the crucial Suliman Safi reduced them to 59/4. As wickets tumbled around him, Eddie Richardson remained an immovable object, Bakhtyar Nabi knocking over two of his partners either side of the run out of Luke Whelan. Richardson however stood resolute, taking the game as deep as possible and hunting maximums, rolling with the punches and adding 62 with Ashish Jain (14) and seeing Abdul Ghaffar join him at the crease with the score on 201, needing 49 for victory. He passed his century in the 45th over and saw North County then needing 40 from the final 30 balls of the innings. However his heroic effort came to an end with just 24 needed to win, with a marvellous 112 from 117 balls just not enough for County to get over the line.