Tomorrow afternoon will see the finalists of the SportsHub Senior League Cup decided as two ties take place, just either side of the East-Link bridge, and no matter what the outcome of both games is, we are guaranteed to have a Northside versus Southside final in Sydney Parade on June 11th.
Sydney Parade is where we will begin this pair of previews, Pembroke play host to local rivals Merrion, the double winning 2021 Ballsbridge outfit were the only side to manage to knock Pembroke out of any competitions last season, defeating them in the final of the league, having managed to overcome a bonus points deficit earlier in the summer to usurp their opponents in the final game of the Senior League Cup group stages.
Both sides have identical records in the group stages, Merrion were ultimately very comfortable in their qualification for the last four, but did enter the final round of fixtures needing to win to confirm their place. Pembroke on the other hand won each of their first five completed games, securing themselves top spot with a week to spare, this meant they didn’t feel the brunt of their missing IP players in their loss to Phoenix.
The home side have the leading batter in the competition to call upon, most likely at number 3, this weekend, as Lorcan Tucker returns to the side having been on Leinster Lightning duty last weekend, he is however the only one of their regular international quartet who is in the side, whilst Josh Little and Andy Balbirnie have featured for the side very little so far this season, the absence of Barry McCarthy is likely to hurt slightly more, he’s produced a couple of very important performances in early weeks this season, most notably his 92 against Terenure on week one, followed by his final ball 6 in North County to secure victory in their next fixture. With the ball, their leading wicket takers of Piyush Sharma and Donncha Tucker are both going to be vital in this game, with both having delivered wickets at vital moments this season, they will be contenders to look to opening the door early in the Merrion batting innings. Ryan Hopkins’ return will strengthen both disciplines, whilst Paul Lawson will relish the return to Sydney Parade and is a man who loves to stick his hand up to produce in big moments.
Merrion by contrast didn’t have very much batting to do for their first few weeks of the season, with just two of their batsmen, Jack Carty and Swapnil Modgil, managing to bat 5 times from their 7 fixtures. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this pair lead the way in terms of the run scoring aggregates, with Stephen Doheny the only other player to have passed 100 runs scored in that time. Niranjan Shankar has returned to the side in the past couple of weeks, and showed some decent form making an unbeaten half-century against Leinster in a comprehensive 8-wicket victory. The widespread general form of their batsmen appears on paper to be decent, however without a genuine test having come their way so far this season, it’s certainly the discipline which carriers a greater question mark for the away side going into this game. With the ball, Amish Sidhu leads the way, his 15 wickets so far this season have cost just a smidge under 14 apiece and in the past couple of weeks in particular he’s really turned the screw on their oppositions through the middle overs of the game. He’s been helped endlessly by the impact which Muhammed Sinan has had with the new ball, he’s taken 10 wickets so far this season and applied sufficient pressure to sides across the board that the left arm-spinners have been able to attack from the outset, captain Tom Stanton is the other in that duo and his 9 wickets at just over 17 might seem less impressive, but he has delivered the best economy rate of the regular bowlers in the side this season.
With Merrion’s top order being the ones to produce most of their runs, and a dominant batting performance from Stephen Doheny and Jack Carty being key to the winning of last season’s league final, it will be Poonish Mehta who Pembroke look to for an early breakthrough, Doheny is in fine nick having made 97 during the week whilst representing the North West Warriors and if he can get on top of Mehta, a long day could be in the offing for the home side.
KEY BATTLE: Poonish Mehta vs Stephen Doheny
On the opposite side of the River Liffey, Castle Avenue plays host to a mouth-watering clash between two sides chock-full of all-round talent. The home side, Clontarf have rolled their way through the group stages unbeaten, granted that hasn’t been without it’s bumps along the way, whilst North County on the other hand qualified last weekend thanks to accumulating more bonus points than The Hills in their respective victories, a pair of fine unbeaten half-centuries from Malcolm Nofal and Eddie Richardson leading the way on that front.
The home side boast comfortably the most in form player of the competition in David Delany, he’s averaging 143 with the bat, and 7.77 with the ball in what has so far been a sensational 5 game run for him, given the standards he holds himself to, no doubt he will feel there are some aspects of his game he could still improve upon! Following a slow start with the bat, overseas player Ruan Cronje has knuckled down for a couple of important innings’ in recent weeks. PJ Moor is the only other player to pass 100 runs so far, perhaps exacerbating the impact which Delany is having on some of these games. With the ball, Ruan Cronje, Mick Granger and Paul Ryan have all been excellent in their performances so far, supporting Delany excellently, whilst Fionn Hand’s supporters wouldn’t take kindly to him being called the 5th bowler in the attack, his 8 wickets at an average of 12.63 place him roughly in that position, showing just how strong ‘Tarf have been with the ball this season.
North County have benefitted this season from having two batters show consistent strong form in their side. Malcolm Nofal has made three half-centuries in his 292 runs at an average north of 58 so far this season, whilst Eddie Richardson has managed to make his way past fifty twice, with one of those being a spectacular, ultimately game-winning, 116* against The Hills on week one, those two, added to the back-board that is John Mooney, batting at number 7 and seemingly immovable at times in average 73 so far, have seen the visitors batting unit be very strong for the most part this season. They are without Jamie Grassi this weekend, whilst regular number 4 Andrew Sheridan is also not in the side. The latter does also weaken the side with the ball, with Sheridan being the regular 4th seamer in the side, that will put an extra level on importance onto the opening spells of Usman Azhar and Abdual Ghaffar, whilst John Mooney and Eddie Richardson will likely between them fill the overs Sheridan would ordinarily have bowled. Nofal’s classy left-arm orthodox is County’s ace in the pack however, and they will be hoping to see him spin a web in the middle overs of the Clontarf innings.
With the obvious advantage of being a left-handed batter in his pocket, David Delany’s battle with Malcolm Nofal in Clontarf’s batting innings, could almost be as important as when Delany lines up to bowl to Nofal, himself another left-handed player, these two have both been in fine form with both disciplines, but if Delany can slide in past Nofal’s defense, it will give his side a major upper hand in the game.
KEY BATTLE: David Delany vs Malcolm Nofal
And just a reminder, the two winning teams will meet in the SportsHub Senior League Cup Final on Saturday 11th June – the Final will be live-streamed with full commentary throughout the day.