IBI Corporate Finance Senior League Cup Final and Friday Flashback

Tomorrow sees the Final of the Virtual Senior League Cup, kindly sponsored by IBI Corporate Finance. After a hard-fought group stage the Semi Finals came to light with fierce competition to gather votes by all teams.

In the first Semi Final between Pembroke and The Hills, the 'home' team started strongly but a late afternoon surge from The Hills saw them over the line with 55% of the vote.

The second semi final was a modern classic with a battle between Rush and Terenure to gather the most votes from their social media followers. Rush were ahead for most of the day, but as they have done at every stage of the competition Terenure delivered 'late order' votes to get them over the line.

In advance of the final, Tomas Murphy, Captain of The Hills said "Nice to be in the final again and be able to defend the trophy, even if it is only virtually. We’ve never been short of support when we’ve made it to finals before so hoping for more of the same this weekend!"

A Terenure club spokesman was looking forward to the final and said “We’re delighted with the level of support in making it this far in the competition. Finals are always a big occasion for any club and hopefully we’ll have one more big performance in us to get across the line. Terenure would like to also express its gratitude to local clubs around us for getting behind the team in it’s run. Finally a big thanks to IBI Corporate Finance for their support of Cricket Leinster, and to our own sponsors CoverInAClick.ie for their continued support this year”

Everyone at Cricket Leinster would like to thank IBI Corporate Finance for their ongoing and unstinting support of cricket in Leinster and in particular the CEO Tom Godfrey and COO Jacinta Brosnan.

IBI Corporate Finance is Ireland’s leading corporate finance firm, experts at taking control of financial deals and making them happen. Focused on advising clients in mergers and acquisitions, both domestic and international. They have a consistent number one ranking in corporate finance surveys of the Irish market in terms of deals completed and provide the highest level of independent financial insights, delivered with honesty and integrity.

The Hills of course won the Senior League Cup in 2019 and this match features in our Friday Flashback. Don't forget to subscribe to Cricket Leinster on Youtube as we have lots of features on the way.

Here's Peter Boyd's match report from the day:

Seven Star Shaukat seals memorable Cup triumph for The Hills

Naseer Shaukat, the ageless wonder of Leinster cricket, stole the show as The Hills won the centenary IBI Corporate Finance Leinster Senior League Cup by seven wickets in Milverton on Saturday.

In the space of two overs bowling up the hill, Shaukat reduced the much-vaunted Phoenix top-order to 35/5 from a relatively comfortable position of 31 without loss.

Ben Beecroft and Louis McDonough looked to get the Phoenix innings off to a good start and a six over square leg as the first runs of the day seemed a good sign.

Then up stepped Naseer to take the best bowling figures in Senior Cup Final history, his 7-20 in ten overs a phenomenal effort under the grey skies.

Shaukat’s ability to move the ball in both directions had the Phoenix team unsure how to play him and made sure the cup would be in The Hills clubhouse in their 50^th birthday season.

Daya Singh, Joey Carroll and Devender Ranolia all chipped in with wickets themselves as Phoenix were dismissed for 84 before the drinks break, but there was no denying that Shaukat was the star of the show.

Poonish Mehta threatened and teased that Phoenix might do the impossible dismissing McLoughlin-Gavin in the first over of the reply.

That was as good as it got for the men from the park as Lakhotia, Carroll and Donegan ensured The Hills comfortably chased down the modest target inside twenty overs.

Donegan stroked two boundaries in that final over to spark the celebrations in the large local crowd that had gathered to watch the denouement.

The Hills v Phoenix, Saturday June 8^th, The Vineyard

Phoenix 84 a/o 24.4 overs (B White 24*, B Beecroft 21; N Shaukat 7-20)

The Hills 86/3 19.5 overs (J Carroll 35, B Lakhotia 21, M Donegan 20*)

The Hills won by 7 wickets

Enjoy the full gallery of photos from the League Cup Final day by clicking here.