All matches in D1/D2 went to form yesterday with the team higher in the league table coming out on top. There were confortable wins for Clontarf, Malahide, Cork County, The Hills, and Rush. The remaining games were more hard fought contests but YMCA, Merrion and Leinster still secured victories.
There were some notable individual efforts with bat and ball. In D2 Reinhart Strydom put in a very good all round performance [4/16 and 70] to steer Malahide home by seven wickets against Balbriggan. Stephen Grobler [4/13 and 43*] did much the same for Cork County against Merrion II. An undefeated century for Phoenix’s Emmanuel Peterson [100*] was not enough to secure victory against Leinster where Joe Carroll [4/30 and 82*] put in a great effort with bat and ball. In this he was well support by Craig Mallon [81] and JP O’Dwyer [46*] to enable Leinster to successfully complete the biggest run chase [260/2] of the day. In the final D2 match yet another all-rounder led the way as Lynal Jansen [3/11 and 76*] brought Rush home with an eight wicket win against Pembroke II.
In D1 three wickets each for Zander van der Merve and Shariful Islam set up an easy Clontarf win by seven wickets against Railway. Youth player Mark Collier [51] picked up his first league 50 of the season for Clontarf. The Hills also beat Terenure by a good margin thanks to Thomas Murphy [5/38] who had his best figures for the year. Contributions with bat and ball from Merrion youth player Tom Stanton [3/13 and 36] were key to the team’s win over North County. Ben Ackland [54] also had a welcome return to form with the bat and Dom Joyce [4/20] made an impact with the ball, making the initial breakthrough and wrapping up the innings. Earlier an excellent bowling effort by North County’s James Newland [3/33] had torn through the top order Merrion batting.
In the final match Pembroke with five bowlers taking wickets induced a YMCA batting collapse while defending a low total. YMCA eventually came out on top with Sean McAuley [24*] just getting the team over the line for the loss of seven wickets. Earlier Yaqoob Ali had recorded the second five-wicket haul of the day to set up the YMCA victory.
One final note to ponder on. Of the seven players mentioned in dispatches in D2 all but one, veteran JP O’Dwyer, learned their cricket outside of Ireland. It is a little better in D1 where five domestic players are mentioned, Mark Collier, Tom Stanton, Ben Ackland, Dom Joyce and Thomas Murphy against five who grew up outside of Ireland. It raises the question – are we getting enough home grown players through to the higher Divisions of the league and are they having a big enough impact. Perhaps something to think about in the off-season when the full figures for the year will be available.