MERRION AND NORTH COUNTY ROUND OFF SEMI-FINALISTS IN FINAL DAY SHOOT-OUT!

An action packed final day of the group stage has seen Merrion and North County joining Clontarf and Pembroke in the semi-final stages of the SportsHub Senior League Cup.

Starting off today’s round-up in Inch, with the Group B permutations all very much in the balance, North County set down a marker for their near neighbours The Hills to match with an excellent bowling performance followed by an extremely professional chase. There were two wickets for each of Usman Azhar and Eddie Richardson, but the pick of the bowlers was John Mooney, who’s 3/32 saw Railway bowled out for 178. Fakhar Zaman’s 92-ball 58 the main resistance for Railway. In reply, an unbeaten pair of half-centuries from Malcolm Nofal (62) and Eddie Richardson (52) saw County recover from a stutter - from 47/0 to 50/3 – to reach their total with 7 wickets in hand in the 32^nd over, securing them 24 points and the “clubhouse lead”.

In Milverton, The Hills batted first having won the toss, and thanks mainly to 112 from Levon Shields, along with 73 from Dylan Blignaut, made their way to 259/6 in their 50 overs. Zubair Khan the clear pick of the bowlers for Terenure, taking 3/41 on what was an excellent batting wicket. News had filtered through that County weren’t chasing a huge score, so The Hills set about their task of attempting to claim 25 points. Terenure however wouldn’t go down without a fight, and batting around Henry Dall, who made an excellent 97 before being dismissed by Matthew Weldon. When Terenure were 155/4, news filtered through from Inch that North County had completed their victory, and The Hills had only 4 runs to play with to qualify for the next round, it wasn’t to be however in terms of the margin of victory, but ultimately three wickets for each of Tómas Rooney-Murphy and Ashley Bain saw the home side to a 36-run victory.

Elsewhere in Group B, a Ryan Hackney century, supported by 61 from Callum Riches and an unbeaten 40 from Fintan McAllister saw Malahide amass a decent score of 262/4 in their 50 overs against Dublin University, a wicket apiece for Theo Dempsey, Max Collins and JJ Walsh. That wasn’t to be enough however as The Students built their chase around an excellent 91 from David Cosgrave, with contributions from Sanil Gupta (42), Jack Atkinson (24) and Theo Dempsey (20) putting together partnerships with Cosgrave, who was eventually dismissed with the score on 250, that didn’t stop DU however as they made their way to a 3 wicket victory with 5 balls to spare.

In the final game in Group B, there was something of a shock as Phoenix beat Pembroke by 5 wickets. The away side batted first and thanks to 90 from Theo Lawson and 55 from Poonish Mehta managed to put together 211 all out in the final over. 3/32 from Oliver Hald, with two wickets for each of Conor Sheil, Gordon Millar and Sam Morris doing the damage for the home side. In the chase, Phoenix were solid, but lost wickets relatively regularly, Adam Chester’s 38, Callum O’Byrne’s 27 and Will Bennett’s 23 all providing something of a base, before an unbeaten 51 from just 34 balls from that man Hald, supported by Louis McDonough who made 25* saw them to victory with 9 overs to spare.

In Group A, the equation was simple, and Merrion went to Cork County needing to win to go through. They batted first and thanks to Franco Marais’ 41 and twenties from Mike Lewis, Muhammad Sinan and Peter Forkin, managed 204 all out from the final ball of their innings. A brace of early wickets for Sinan put them on the front foot, but it was 4/20 from Amish Sidhu which put an end to any slim chance of qualification for YMCA, as Cork County were all out for 102 in the 38^th over. Abdul Ghaffar’s 33 the only real resistance in the side.

That result made YMCA’s “slip-up” in Claremont Road academic. The home side batted first, and could manage just 158, with contributions of 28 from each of Jamies Forbes and Tom Johnson the most notable scores in the innings. John McNally was the pick for Clontarf, taking 2/25, with every other bowler who marked out their run-up taking a wicket. In reply, Ruan Cronje’s unbeaten 77 was the backbone of the chase as Clontarf’s top order made heavy weather of the very modest score. That was until McNally joined Cronje, with the pair adding 81 for the 5^th wicket and calming some of the nerves as the away side eventually saw themselves to a 3 wicket victory. Tom Anders’ 3/27 was the pick of the bowlers, with teenagers Jamie Forbes and Reuben Wilson taking two wickets apiece in a valiant bowling effort.

Elsewhere in the ‘dead-rubber’ games, Observatory Lane saw Balbriggan batting first, and thanks to an unbeaten 86 from Nathan Rooney, along with Ghanim Dara’s 47 saw them make 228/7 in 50 overs. Saqib Bahadur’s 3/15 the pick of the Leinster bowlers. In reply, the home side managed 184 all out in the 46^th over, Ben Mitchell’s 64 accompanied by 38 from Chris Janik the main contributions from their total. For Balbriggan Dylan Lues’ 3/56 was the pick of the bowlers, whilst Ryan Hadley took 2/23 from his 8 over spell.

Finally in Kilcock, North Kildare got their season up and running with a victory over Rush. The home side batted first and Husnain Mahroof’s 45, along with 29 from Abdul Sattar saw them to 201/9 from their 50 overs, 4/39 from Alex Neary the pick of the bowlers for the away side. The second innings saw Rush muster just 127 all out, as an opening spell from Sattar (3/24) followed by a devastating middle overs spell from Imran ul-Haq taking 4/23 gave North Kildare the upper hand in the game. Llew Johnson’s 23 the highest score in the second innings.

SPORTSHUB SENIOR LEAGUE CUP

GROUP A

At The Mardyke
Merrion 204/10, 50 overs (F Marais 41; A Gasper 4/22, A Saddique 2/27, B McDonough 2/38)
beat
Cork County 102/10, 37.1 overs (A Ghaffar 33; A Sidhu 4/20, M Sinan 2/12)
by 102 runs

At Claremont Road
Clontarf 159/7, 40.4 overs (R Cronje 77*, J McNally 43; T Anders 3/27, R Wilson 2/26, J Forbes 2/34)
beat
YMCA 158/10, 48.4 overs (J Forbes 28, T Johnson 28; J McNally 2/26)
by 3 wickets

At Observatory Lane
Balbriggan 228/7, 50 overs (N Rooney 86*, G Dara 47; S Bahadur 3/15)
beat
Leinster 184/10, 45.5 overs (B Mitchell 64, C Janik 38; D Lues 3/56, R Hadley 2/23)
by 44 runs

At The Maws
North Kildare 201/9, 50 overs (A Sattar 45; A Neary 4/38)
beat
Rush 127/10, 35.5 overs (L Johnson 23; I ul-Haq 4/23, A Sattar 3/24)
by 74 runs

GROUP B

At Inch
North County 181/3, 31.5 overs (M Nofal 62*, E Richardson 52*)
beat
Railway Union 178/10, 49.3 overs (F Zaman 58; J Mooney 3/32, E Richardson 2/23, U Azhar 2/36)
by 7 wickets

At The Vineyard
The Hills 259/6, 50 overs (L Shields 112, D Blignaut 73; Z Khan 3/41)
beat
Terenure 223/10, 46.3 overs (H Dall 97; T Rooney-Murphy 3/33, A Bain 3/34)
by 36 runs

At Phoenix Park
Phoenix 212/5, 41 overs (O Hald 51*, A Chester 38; P Lawson 3/48)
beat
Pembroke 211/10, 49.1 overs (T Lawson 90, P Mehta 55; O Hald 3/32)
by 5 wickets

At Malahide
Dublin University 263/7, 49.1 overs (D Cosgrave 91, S Gupta 42; M Sane 2/30, J Newland 2/50, C Riches 2/63)
beat
Malahide 262/4, 50 overs (R Hackney 100, C Riches 62, F McAllister 40*)
by 3 wickets