VITALLITY FIRST TEAM LEAGUE – ROUND 4 (SUNDAY 1.6.2025)

Round 4 of the Vitallity First Team League is scheduled for this Sunday, 1st June.

Last weekend saw North Kildare complete an astonishing chase in order to overcome a determined performance from Terenure at The Maws.

In Munster, Civil Service managed get over the line against Cork Harlequins by a margin of 36 runs in a brave effort on their first outing to Farmer’s Cross.

At this relatively early stage in the season, North Kildare have established an early lead and are unbeaten after three games.

This weekend’s actions sees Terenure travel to take on Civil Service in the Phoenix Park whilst North Kildare are at home for the second week running as they host Adamstown at The Maws.

CIVIL SERVICE vs TERENURE

It was contrasting fortunes for these 2 teams on round 3 as Terenure couldn’t quite get the job done away to North Kildare while Civil Service travelled to Cork and successfully defended 236 for a hard-fought win.

Terenure has a solid batting line-up which is led by openers Mick Cotter (who completed an unbeaten 105 last week in Kildare) and Gareth Morgan (son of long-time Terenure keeper-batsman, Colm Morgan).

Terenure will be hoping that their overseas player (Hankce Von Rauenstein) can provide stability in the middle order (as he did in the National Cup against Midleton) however the side are without their skipper Dónal Lynch and fellow middle-order batter Sid Nair, both of whom were in the runs last weekend.

With ball in hand, Terenure will want to put right what was tough day out for them last weekend as they lacked penetration in trying to defend 266 at The Maws. They are led by Dylan Cleary who has been a decent performer for them with the new ball and he will again be partnered by young Ben Dillon. Donal Lynch will then look to make best use of his various support bowling options including the leg spin of Tanvir Hasan.

As previously mentioned, Civil Service come into this fixture off the back of a hard fought win away to Cork Harlequins. On that day they were indebted to their captain Deepak Jayachandran who scored a beautiful hundred opening the batting, he will be partnered by Nilesh Joshi. The Service middle order is made up of Vivekanandan Srinivasan, Dhiraj Shetty and new signing Karthikeyan Jawahar. They will also be able to call on the hard hitting of Naveed Khan and Vijay Adhikari to round out a strong batting group.

With ball in hand ex skipper Sunny Malik is the man to watch, he is riding high after 4/30 last week to ensure his side ran out narrow winners in Munster and he will be partnered by Naveed Khan with the new ball. Service have a battery of spinners to call on from there including Vivekanandan Srinivasan and Roshin Raviprasad to finish off a strong attack.

Mick Cotter is the man in form for Terenure, Sunny Malik will have balls at him early, whoever comes out on top in that battle will put their team on top in this battle.

Key Battle – Mick Cotter vs Sunny Malik

NORTH KILDARE vs ADAMSTOWN

North Kildare come into this fixture riding high having completed a brilliant chase against Terenure last weekend. On that day they had their new man Yash Kalasannavar to thank as he led his side over the line with 107*. He will be joined in the top 3 by his skipper Husnain Maroof and Sayed Mehdi Shah. The top 5 will be rounded out by the powerful Asadullah Ahmadzai and Josh Uddin, all good ball strikers.

Their attack will be led by their skipper Husnain Maroof he picked up 4/45 last week against Terenure and will no doubt be in a mood to inflict similar damage this weekend. He will be joined on the new ball duties by Abdul Aryan. The Ahmadzai brothers Asadullah and Adnan will continue to ply their craft in the middle overs. Ali Elahi is another man to keep an eye out for picking up 3/35 last weekend after making the move from Railway Union.

Adamstown have had a fair start to the season and their batting is led by young Sidharth Biju who will likely bat 3 and the rest will try and bat around him. Men to look out for with bat in hand for Adamstown include their club ‘pro’ Prabhanshu Kamal, Dinesh Antony and Aditya Gupta.

With ball in hand Adamstown will start with the quick duo of Pomin Ponselvan and Nithin Padmaprabhu. The key for Adamstown will again be their leg spin bowling pro in Prabhanshu Kamal. The attack is rounded out by the young duo of Kathan Shah and Dinesh Antony who bowl left arm spin and medium pace respectively.

 Yash Kalasannavar is the key man for North Kildare, Adamstown will want to see the back of him quickly and will look to Nithin Padmaprabhu to ensure he doesn’t enjoy the same success he did last week. Whoever comes out on top is likely to put their team on the path to victory.

KEY BATTLE: Nithin Padmaprabhu vs Yash Kalasannavar