Preview of OCD2 [R11] and Averages

With the Cork / Leinster match to be refixed and much hanging on its outcome, the leaders take a weekend off and will be watching to see if either of the two main contenders, Balbriggan and Cork, can make up ground. Of course these two teams are also vying with each other for the second promotion spot and need to ensure enough points to overtake DU.

Balbriggan are in the stronger position - they have the win in hand over Cork who have that difficult tie against Leinster - and need just 53 points from four games to overtake the students. Today they travel to Terenure and pressure will be on them to secure the victory. 

Their rivals travel to Malahide where they might be thought to have the tougher match but Malahide’s form this season has been so up and down that one never knows. Still Malahide will be coming off a great fight back last weekend when six wickets from Peter Chase was not quite enough to beat Balbriggan.

In the final game Rush take on North Kildare. Rush are currently seventh in the table and will certainly be hoping that the fine weather will give another opportunity for their batsmen to excel. 

Averages

Fewer players in the batting and bowling tables than in D1. Also interesting to see the contrast in bolwing averages - all but one of the D1 bolwers have averages of over 20 and the leaders just makes it under the 20 mark. In D2 the [fewer] bolwers are all under 20 and the leader is below 10.