Sorensen the undoubted star of Northern group

The semi final line up for the 2015 Alan Murray Cup was confirmed last night, when the North Group came to a conclusion. The Hills, North County and Clontarf were all in the mix, but North County dropped out of the equation when their match against Balbriggan was brought to a premature, bad light induced end. Balbriggan were 34-0 at that stage - seven runs ahead of the DLS par score from five overs, handing Balbriggan a famous win over their neighbours.

The order that Clontarf and The Hills would finish was down to Net Run Rate, and The Hills did their best to surpass Clontarf in this respect, by running up 240-7 in twenty overs, thanks to Max Sorensen's 33 ball 101. However, they still needed to restrict Rush to something around 123, and with Rush finishing on 165-5, The Hills had to be happy with second spot in the group.

However, as has been discussed all week, the OCC has given the runners up in the group a home semi final, so The Hills may well be quite happy with runners up spot. They will host Merrion, winners of the South group, whilst North County will travel to Pembroke - both on dates to be arranged.

Analysis of the averages for the group reveals some interesting stats - both on the personnel front, and in comparison with the South group.

Batting - qualification 100 runs

Quality shines through the batting averages in the North group. 3rd, 4th and 5th have three of the best overseas players in the province this season, in Brenton Parchment, Nic Pretorius and Sam Anderson. However above them are the two players who were controversially left out of Ireland's World T20 qualifying squad, and who continue to be the best T20 players in the province.

Andrew Poynter compiled four 50s in only five innings, and was the top run scorer with 285 runs, with Max Sorensen coming second with 268 runs - including that sensational 100 yesterday. However, it is the rate at which these two scorer their runs which marks them out. Sorensen's runs came at a remarkable strike rate of 239 runs per 100 balls, whilst Poynter scored at a slightly slower (but still pretty impressive 181 runs per 100 balls). 

Using the ranking system of adding average to strike rate, gives Sorensen as the top batsman with a rating of 292, with Poynter in third at 238. Between them is another Clontarf player, Conor Kelly, who scored 105 runs in the matches at 194 runs per 100 balls - although that included one knock of 98!

Bowling - qualification 5 wickets

There is no stopping Max Sorensen, who on top of being the most destructive batsman in the group, also took four more wickets than the next bowler - Clontarf's Stephen Moreton. 

Bowling Economy - qualification 10 overs

The difference in the pitches north of the Liffey ,as opposed to South can be seen from the respective economy rates. Where as in the south, spinners dominated and the top bowlers went for under five an over - the north group was a healthy mix of spin and seam, and the top bowlers were around 5.5 runs per over.

Ground size also has a part to play, with Rush particularly attracting high scores. However, plenty of the other grounds north of the river are as big if not bigger than their southern counterparts, and it is pace and bounce which is the crucial difference.