PEMBROKE RETAIN UNBEATEN RECORD HOWEVER MERRION JUMP TO SUMMIT - IBI CORPORATE FINANCE PREMIER LEAGUE & CHAMPIONSHIP (JULY 27TH)

The eighth round of fixtures in the IBI Corporate Finance Cricket Leinster Premier League saw victories for the two sides at the top, as in spite of a tie seeing Pembroke keep their unbeaten record, the day saw Merrion picking up 23 points to leapfrog them at the top of the table. Meanwhile in Castle Avenue, Clontarf secured their first league win since May 4th, comprehensively disposing of Balbriggan.

The featured action saw Pembroke batting first having lost the toss to their visitors Leinster, and much like around the grounds this afternoon, they had to weather a tough period early on before getting some nice batting conditions in the second half of their innings. The platform was built around 25 from Diarmaid Tucker and 35 from Nick Stapleton, as the side reached 104/2 at drinks.

JJ Garth then took centre stage, as he began to play some nice shots to move himself beyond 50 in the 35th over of the innings. With Pembroke just three down and passing 170, Tom Johnson came into the attack for the away side, and produced a sensational spell of bowling, firstly dismissing Garth, then Jack Tector, before adding Fiachra Tucker and Greg Hollins, adjudged LBW, as he completed 6 overs with figures of 4/22.

An excellent unbeaten stand for the 10th wicket would prove to be the catalyst in getting Pembroke to their final total of 247/8, as Mark Berry and Paul Lawson scrambled their side up to a competitive score. As well as Johnson's efforts, there were a wicket apiece for Luke Callanan, Mark Tonge, Jai Moondra and Saqib Bahadur in an excellent all-round effort.

The second inning started poorly for Leinster, a spectacular Greg Hollins catch dismissing Aviral Shukla, before Nick Stapleton went one better with a scarcely believable run out to dismiss Bahadur, leaving the visitors 30/3. Joey Carroll and Monil Patel scored fluently, with the score reaching 70 in the 12th over before a calamitous run out and more brilliance from Hollins behind the stumps ran Patel out for 31.

Carroll followed soon after, skying Dan Murray to mid-wicket, where Jack Tector completed the catch, before the first of three stands which took Leinster back into the game occurred between Amit Whagmare and Mark Tonge, with the pair adding 46 and wrestling back some momentum. Tonge then added a further 30 with Tom Johnson, before the former fell for 41 with the score on 149. Johnson followed just 7 runs later, and at 156/8 Leinster looked to be in real trouble.

That was without reckoning on Jai Moondra and Luke Callanan though, as the pair took the game by the scruff of the neck, and battled hard to take it as deep as they possibly could. They had added 75 when Nick Stapleton returned for his final blast to bowl the 48th over, with just 17 now needed to win, 9 runs came from the first 5 balls, before Stapleton nicked Callanan off, as Greg Hollins took an excellent catch for the 9th wicket. Byron McDonough then bowled the penultimate over, and after Moondra and Jawahar scrambled their way down to one to win, he induced a nick from the number 11 to bowl Leinster out for 247 with the scores tied.

Meanwhile in Anglesea Road, Merrion bowled first against Malahide, and an excellent five wicket haul for Melvin Devaraj helped roll Malahide over for 153, as the only resistance came from Adam Doyle and Jeremy Martins who both made 30s. Merrion's chase was professional, as Adam Rosslee stroked an excellent unbeaten 59 from just 51 balls, whilst Pete Francis was also unbeaten on 45 in securing a 6 wicket win inside 29 overs.

Finally, Clontarf secured their first Premier League win since May 4th, as again having battled early on a tough batting wicket, David Vincent's 43 laid a brilliant platform for Rahul Dalal (86) and David Delany (77*) to plunder their side to an excellent total of 291/7. Sebastian de Oliveira the pick of the away bowlers with 3/47.

In response, Balbriggan saw half-centuries from Jordan Hollard and Cameron Rowe, however there were no other resistance, as they were also hindered by the absence of Chris de Freitas who retired hurt. The away side managing only 158 all out in a 133 run defeat. Fionn Hand was the pick of the bowlers for the home side, taking 4/51, whilst Yash Bala also took two wickets.

In the Championship, there were wins for North County, Rush, The Hills and Railway Union, as the top four all marched on without upset.

The first result of the day came from Inch, where an excellent bowling effort from Terenure's two spearheads, Dylan Cleary (4/34) and Jinal Khatri (4/38) kept North County to 177 all out, John Devane top scoring with 46 as Eddie Richardson also made 27. The chase however never got going in any way, and a top score of 28 from Sid Nair was the only resistance offered as Richardson kept up his relentless form with 4/19, whilst there were two wickets each for Ashish Jain and Alan Joseph Mathew as Terenure were all out for 112, securing a 65 run win for North County.

In Civil Service, The Hills batted first, and an excellent knock of 89 from their key man Brandon Kruger led from the front, he was supported by 67 from Nicolaj Damgaard, and 42 from Tómas Rooney-Murphy, as they posted 293/6 in their 50 overs, Digamber Mishra the pick of the bowlers for the home side taking 2/69. Service pushed hard in the chase, and were right in the game with 7 overs to go, as Dhiraj Shetty's 74 was supported by 36 for Deepak Jayachandran, however three wickets for that man Kruger, accompanied by two apiece for Sean McNicholl and Cian Nulty kept their hosts to 250 all out and secured a 43 run victory for The Hills.

In Park Avenue, North Kildare batted first, and 60 from Husnain Maroof did the bulk of the damage as they made 204 all out. There was support from Josh Uddin and Badeeu Zaman, with 36 and 34 respectively, however 6/33 for Liam McCarthy, and three wickets for Zaman Safi dragged the game back towards Railway. The home side weren't quite comfortable in the chase, however they remained just ahead of the game throughout, as 45 from Philippe le Roux set the side up, before an unbeaten stand between Zaman Safi (32*) and Connor Walden (22*) guided them to a 3 wicket victory.

Finally in The Mardyke, Rush's bowlers were in brilliant form as they restricted Cork County to just 184 all out. Nabeel Anjum was again in the runs making an unbeaten 40, whilst Mark Andrianatos made 31. It was two wickets for each of Allan Eastwood, Nasir Totakhil, Alex Neary and Jarred Barnes however that kept Rush on top throughout their bowling effort. The chase was then again really professional, as Josh Doyle anchored proceedings with a fine knock of 82*, once again sharing a big 3rd wicket stand with Jack McGee, who made 35, as they both carried on good form from last weekend.