The first round of Division 1 of the Open Competitions saw a straight battle between south side and north side clubs, which was won decisively [4 - 0] by the latter. In an interesting coincidence today sees a continuation of the north v south battle lines and an early test of the hypothesis that there has been a shift in cricketing power to the north of the city.
In what many expect to be the most competitive D1 ever, most of the pressure will be on the clubs who lost in the first round of matches to get their campaign started with a win. A couple of losses early in the season does not put a team out of contention for league honours but it certainly increases the pressure top avoid one of the two potential relegation spots. But the D4 clubs at least will all have home advantage – so if anyone wants to visit all the matches in the one afternoon this is the day to do it.
Given that there has only been one round of matches, and many of the contests were close fought, there is little to go with in terms of form. Clontarf, current champions, had the narrowest of wins against Merrion but then went on to lose in the Irish Senior Cup. North County, The Hills, Pembroke, YMCA and Phoenix all won their ISC matches so will bring some confidence into the today’s matches. Railway and Merrion were rained off last week.
The four matches, which will be covered throughout the day on the Match Centre, are:
Railway U v The Hills The Hills look to have the stronger side but Kevin O’Brien showed in the Leinster Lightning T20 game last night how effective he can be and of course Kenny Carroll already has a century to his name this season.
Pembroke v North County Difficult to call with Pembroke always difficult to beat in Sydney Parade. It will be a good test of the young Pembroke side against an inform team.
YMCA v Clontarf YMCA secured a comfortable win last weekend and have a good chance of beating the champions on home turf – providing that their somewhat brittle batting middle order can stand up to the pressure.
Merrion v Phoenix Merrion took Clontarf to within a couple of runs in a high scoring game on the first day of the season. It was a battling performance which they will need to repeat again today if they are to contain a rampant Phoenix with Reinhardt Strydum in destructive form at the top of the innings. With Tyrone Kane absent doing exams and no overseas player Merrion have a very inexperienced team out with Josh Doherty and Max Neville making debuts.