IBI CORPORATE FINANCE PREMIER LEAGUE PREVIEW

This June Bank Holiday sees the beginning of the season for the IBI Corporate Finance Premier League, with a full round of four games set to take place in the top tier to kick off the season.

Starting off in Castle Avenue, we have a prequel to next weekend’s Senior League Cup final, as Pembroke visit Clontarf for what should be a cracking encounter to open up proceedings.

Clontarf are able to call upon the services of David Vincent and Cillian McDonnell for the opening game of the season, they bolster the spin attack alongside Paul Ryan and Ruan Cronje, both of whom have been performing excellently this season. Vincent’s opened the batting to good effect so far this season with Dublin University, and will add depth to the line-up in that regard as well. David Delany’s strong form with the bat will need to translate across to the red-ball, whilst captain Eoghan Delany will likely come into his own in this format. Clontarf go into this game with a three-pronged seam attack, however nobody can doubt the talents of the trio of Delany, Fionn Hand and Mick Granger.

Pembroke’s batters enter this game in excellent form off the back of a strong performance in Saturday’s Senior League Cup semi-final. JJ Garth, Lorcan Tucker and Poonish Mehta all made half-centuries, with Theo Lawson also looking in imperious form before his unfortunate run out. On top of that four, they also welcome back Danny Hogan, with Gavin Hoey returning after playing the first half of the season with Dublin University. His return also strengthens the bowling line-up, which managed to get through an incredibly challenging afternoon on Saturday with injuries to two of their 6 bowlers in the side that day.

This dress rehearsal for next week’s final is likely to hang on the interventions of the InterPro players on each side, and with the attacking manor in which Lorcan Tucker has gone about his business at number 3 in the Pembroke side the last few weeks, he will likely be their key wicket. Fionn Hand will likely need to bowl to the Lightning vice-captain at some point in his knock, and the outcome of that battle will go a long way to determining the result in this game.

KEY BATTLE: Fionn Hand vs Lorcan Tucker

Up next, in Claremont Road, Merrion visit YMCA in a fixture which they won in a T20 refix last season. The away side will be reeling somewhat after a comprehensive loss in Saturday’s semi-final against Pembroke, a game in which they would have seen themselves getting much closer to their opposition than they did. They got off to a flying start, however with injury to Niranjan Shankar leaving them down a batsman, they needed one of their top three to make a big score. Jack Carty and Stephen Doheny are the real key for the side at the top of the order, and that pair need to get them off to a good start in the PowerPlay overs to set the side up to make big runs. Swapnil Modgil has become a key man in the middle order, which has limited the effects of the lack of availability in general of John Anderson and Dom Joyce. With the ball, both left-arm spinners in Tom Stanton and Amish Sidhu are likely to enjoying bowling with a red ball and continue their good form so far this season.

YMCA on the other hand are sure to be boosted by the news that they have no fewer than 5 representatives in the Leinster Lightning squad for this coming Tuesday. Jack Tector and Mitchell Thompson have been in good form at the top of the order so far this season, and having made some big scores in red ball cricket last season, the latter is sure to relish the beginning of the league campaign. With the ball, Reuben Wilson’s prodigious swing will be a major asset with the new ball, with the same to be said for Tom Anders, whilst Rory Anders’ excellent form of late has helped the side put together some good results. Their spin attack is always boosted hugely when Harry Tector is in the side, with him and Jamie Forbes being key in that regard.

With the importance of Merrion’s opening pair to their batting means, coupled with Jack Carty’s current good form means their chances of running up a big score circle around him capitalising and putting together a big score, Rory Anders will be hoping to continue his good rhythm with the ball and if he can take Carty’s wicket, will put YMCA on the front foot in this fixture.

KEY BATTLE: Rory Anders vs Jack Carty

The third fixture we look at sees The Hills visit Malahide, and no doubt they will be gunning to put the disappointment of agonisingly missing out on the semi-final stages of the Senior League Cup behind them by hitting the ground running in this opening fixture. Dylan Blignaut’s performances with the new ball have been indicative of a bowler who would relish bowling with the red ball this season, extracting just enough movement throughout his opening couple of overs. Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin has batted very well at the top of the order so far this year, an area of the game where his skills become even more important to The Hills’ batting line-up in league cricket. Mark Donegan looked good at the beginning of his innings last weekend, and his form will again be important in the absence of Murray Commins from his usual post in the top three. With the ball, Tómas Rooney-Murphy and Matthew Weldon are the other seamers in the side this week, with the pair needing to account for the absence of Ashley Bain, who has done an exceptional job as first change bowler in the opening part of the season, he’s replaced by teenager Sam Smyth, who made his debut at the tail end of last season. Athar Farooqi and Levon Shields’ spin will need to make up for the absence of Jonathan Tall from this week’s line-up.

Malahide have put together some good scores in the last few weeks, and their overseas player Ryan Hackney has really started to find his feet. His past three scores of 50, 100 and 72* have been the highlight for the side, whilst Fintan McAllister and Callum Riches have also had bursts of good scores which have coincided with the improvement in Malahide’s performances, they are unfortunately without their talismanic wicket-keeper this weekend, but Arjun Muntha and Timcy Khanduja do return to the side to bolster the batting. With the ball, David O’Halloran and Cameron Shoebridge will provide seam options to support stand-in skipper James Newland, with Mohit Sane once again leading the left-arm spin brigade in the absence of Mike Frost.

With the good form Ryan Hackney has been in for the last few weeks, he has now become Malahide’s key wicket at the top of the order, in particular in the absence of Fintan McAllister. Tómas Rooney-Murphy has had the knack of picking up big wickets early in innings and if he can knock over the Malahide overseas, it will give the visitors a big upper-hand in the innings.

KEY BATTLE: Ryan Hackney vs Tómas Rooney-Murphy

Finally in Premier League action, we have the action from Balbriggan, where the home side make their debut leap up to this level against Phoenix, who finished off their Senior League Cup campaign with a flourish in defeating Pembroke. Balbriggan did likewise in their victory over Leinster, with Nathan Rooney finding form as the season starts to get going.

Phoenix’s Danish all-rounder Oliver Hald has found some good form with both bat and ball, whilst New Zealander Will Bennett has been in strong form at number 4 for the past number of weeks. Adam Chester and Louis McDonough form a strong middle order with Hald in a side that has the capability of making big runs, and could do so given Balbriggan’s unusual square boundary dimensions. With the ball, Hald leads the line brilliantly, whilst Theo Dempsey will return to the side having played the Senior League Cup campaign with Dublin University, their spinners of Dev Ranolia and Bennett have also taken wickets at important times in the past few weeks and provide good support to their openers alongside seamer Conor Sheil.

Balbriggan have their full complement of players available to them this weekend, and come into this game off the back of four straight victories, before a rain off against Civil Service in the Alan Murray Cup scuppered that perfect run of games. Runs for Greg Ford, Chris de Freitas and Nathan Rooney have coincided with this good run of form, with Connor Fletcher also beginning to put together a couple of scores in recent weeks as well. Ryan Hadley continues to lead the bowling attack with good support from Andrew Darroch, whilst this weekend sees the home side go with three spinners in their attack, as Malcolm McGregor joins Dylan Lues and Farooq Nasr in the bowling attack.

With Oliver Hald being so important to Phoenix with both bat and ball now, his opening spell will be vital in the Balbriggan innings, if he can get on top of Connor Fletcher, and put the hosts middle order under pressure, it will scupper Balbriggan’s hopes of starting the season with an upset.

KEY BATTLE: Connor Fletcher vs Oliver Hald