MARVELLOUS MERRION MAUL MALAHIDE - IBI CORPORATE FINANCE PREMIER LEAGUE ROUND 2 (MAY 3RD)

Another glorious day of action in the IBI Corporate Finance Premier League has seen wins for Merrion, Pembroke, Leinster, Clontarf, Rush & Phoenix, as the league table has begun to take some shape even at this early stage in proceedings.

Our featured action came from Anglesea Road, where Malahide decided to bowl first on a fresh wicket. An opening stand dominated by Swapnil Modgill would very likely have seen them questioning their decision, with the first wicket not falling until after the Power Play, when Stephen Doheny became the first victim of Andy Sheridan. This however sparked a wobble, with Danny Forkin and Jamie Forbes also falling cheaply, either side of the wicket of Modgill for an excellent 73 from just 55 deliveries.

A partnership of 56 between the skipper Max Sorensen, who dominated, and John Anderson, brought the score to 160 before the former was dismissed for a breezy 37. When Anderson managed to pull a long-hop from Mohit Sane to mid-wicket, the score was 196/6 and Merrion looked like they could be on the brink of fumbling an excellent start.

Sean Stanton and Mikey O'Reilly however added 35 to ensure the score would be at a minimum defendable, before three more wickets fell for just 8 runs, leaving the final pair of Andy Doheny and Melvin Devaraj with 37 balls left to bat. They did just that, adding 62 unbeaten for the final wicket, finishing on 36 and 31 respectively, including 18 runs from the final over to power their way to 301/9 and put them in the driving seat.

The Malahide response saw only Robbie Foulkes providing any major resistance, with his brilliant 73 from just 66 balls putting some respectability on the total, as only he passed 20. Tom Stanton was destroyer-in-chief for the home side, taking 4/43 including the key wickets of Timcy Khanduja & Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin early on, before accounting for Foulkes in the final over of his second spell. Max Sorensen also took 2/29, whilst there was a wicket for each of Mikey O'Reilly, Melvin Devaraj, Andy Doheny & Swapnil Modgill in rounding out a fantastic 144 run victory for the home side.

The first result of the day saw the Pembroke 'Galacticos' produce a tremendously complete performance to win the Park Avenue derby. Barry McCarthy was the pick of the bowlers taking 3/32, with two apiece for Harry Tector and Byron McDonough. Gavin Hoey and Paul Lawson took a wicket each to round off proceedings as Railway Union could manage just 95 in 32.2 overs. Blake MacDonald & Tim Tector dominated the run-chase as the champions romped to victory in just 12.1 overs, the Australian being particularly impressive this time around, striking an unbeaten 43 from just 26 balls, with Tector happy to play second fiddle this time around, finishing on 34.

Elsewhere, Rush piled up an early contender for the biggest score of the season, as rapid centuries saw Abidullah Taniwal (135 off 88) and Hashir Sultan (106* off 61) guide them from an early precarious position of 44/3 to a massive total of 371/6 in their 50 overs, Abdul Ghaffar's 3/71 the stand out effort for North County with the ball.

The response started brightly, as Brian Dunphy's run-a-ball 60 put County on the right track, Hunter Kindley went on to be the highlight of the innings, making a brilliant 116 from just 74 deliveries to give the side hope, sharing a big partnership with Niall McGovern who also passed 50, however it wasn't enough as they fell 58 runs short.

In The Mardyke, George Dockrell's 64 was by far the top score as Phoenix were all out for 194 inside 49 overs. Bakhtyar Nabi took 3/24 for the home side, but the pick of the bowlers was Raj Undre, who took 4/33 in 8 overs. The spin domination continued in the second innings, however Cork County also saw three run outs as they really shot themselves in the foot early in the innings as in spite of the tail wagging from 80/7 to 129/8, they were left with too much to do. Amish Sidhu the pick of the bowlers for the away side - claiming 3/28, whilst Raghav Grover also managed 2/15 in a tidy bowling performance.

In Castle Avenue, a half-century for Mitchell Thompson saw Clontarf off to a strong start, as he and Eoghan Delany built a good foundation for the hosts, however from 101/2 to 151/6 they collapsed, before another good partnership between Andy Delany and 'Bobbo' Forrest guided the side beyond 200. Cian Nulty the pick of The Hills bowlers as 'Tarf eventually fell all out for 221. Yash Bala was once again to the fore for the home side, taking 3/17, whilst there were two wickets for each of David Delany, John McNally and Cillian McDonnell, as the home side secured 25 points for the second week in a row.

Finally, in Balbriggan, the home side batted first, and half-centuries for Connor Fletcher (60) and Dylan Lues (53) were the backbone of their innings as there were also contributions from Chris de Freitas (39) & Jordan Hollard (41) to see them racking up 292 all out off the penultimate ball of the innings, there were two-fors all round as Jai Moondra, Mark Tonge, Bilal Azhar, Joey Carroll and Gareth Delany all took two wickets each! Ben Mitchell played a key hand for Leinster, making a brilliant 99 from 67 balls falling agonisingly short of a return century, whilst when Younas Ahmadzai's 42 from 26 was added to this, run rate was never set to be an issue during the run chase. After that pair were dismissed, an excellent stand between Gareth Delany (49) and Joey Carroll, who finished unbeaten on 52, saw the visitors to a four wicket victory with nearly 8 overs to spare.