VITALLITY SPORTS FIRST TEAM LEAGUE PREVIEW – MATCH DAY 1 (27.4.2025)

232 days after both Pembroke and Rush won the Premier League and Championship respectively, there is a new ‘sheriff in town’ and it’s called the ‘Vitallity First Team League’.

This League is the newest addition to the Open Competition structure and offers competing teams a pathway to the new 12-team Premier League in subsequent season. It will be competed for by just 5 clubs in 2025 with the intention of expansion in later years – the 2025 participants are Terenure, Adamstown, North Kildare, Cork Harlequins and Civil Service. This is sure to be hotly contested as these clubs contend to enter the highest league in Cricket Leinster.

This new competition is sponsored by Vitallity Sports, and Cricket Leinster would like to thank them for their support of this new competition.

There has been plenty of player movement amongst these clubs as each look to position themselves to dominate this new League. Terenure have signed a new club professional in Hancke Von Rauenstein, Mick Cotter returns after some time out and they are also joined by Tanvir Hasan who is an experienced campaigner – this will all assist in shoring up the clubs playing resources with the departures of some key players over the winter period. Elsewhere North Kildare and Adamstown have also made moves in order to strengthen their base whilst Civil Service have recruited the Ahmadzai brothers (Adnan and Asadullah) from rivals North Kildare but will have to contend with the loss of Digmaber Mishra who has moved to Railway Union for 2025. North Kildare have also lost their two leading run-scorers from last season with Abidullah Taniwal gone to Rush and Bakhtyar Nabi now with Cork County.

With just five competing teams for 2025, each club will play each other three times over the course of the season. So for week one, Adamstown host Cork Harlequins at Airlie Park and North Kildare take on Civil Service at The Maws. Both are sure to be crackers so lets take a more detailed look below.

ADAMSTOWN VS CORK HARLEQUINS (AIRLIE PARK)

Adamstown have grown from strength-to -strength over recent seasons and open their account at this level facing the challenge of Cork Harlequins. Quins prevailed on both occasions when the sides met in Division 4 last season and by wide margins - 8 wickets and 126 runs respectively.

Adamstown have reasonable depth in their batting, top performers from last year were Kunal Nagare (253 runs) and Aditya Gupta (235 runs) both at an average of about 30 per innings. Another player to watch is Dinesh Antony Kidagan David who had the highest average with the bat at 30.29 last season including a highest score of 84. If Adamstown are to post a competitive total against a strong Cork Harlequins side these 3 players will need to make strong contributions with the bat.

With ball in hand it is hard to look past Adamstown’s big game player Prabhanshu Kamal, last year he picked up 25 wickets at a miserly average of 9.92 across the season. He will have to be at his best in order to try and restrict Cork in the middle overs. Also a huge asset for Adamstown is their opening bowler Nithin Padmaprabhu who ended the season in Division 4 with an impressive 19 wickets at 13.42. These two players will play key roles for Adamstown as they look to contain Quins in the field.

Cork Harlequins come into this season off the back of a blistering run through Division 4 last year which included a winning streak from 25th May to 8th September; a run of 107 days undefeated. However their attack will have to deal with the loss of big quick Zubair Khan who moved to local rivals, Cork County in the off season.

With bat in hand the Munster side had a group of strong players that played solidly to ensure they were never left wanting for runs. They had 4 players score between 194 and 243 runs across the season all at an average a shade under 30. However the star man was Adam Hickey who aggregated 288 runs at a solid average of 32 per innings. He will play a huge role in this game but they will need their whole batting unit to fire and work together to ensure a competitive total on a ground with larger than usual dimensions.

With ball in hand it is similar story for the Munster side - whilst no bowler reached 20 wickets, no less than 5 players finished with between 10 and 19 wickets. The mainstay of their bowling efforts was Seanan Jones with 19 wickets at an average of 17.26. The men from Munster will need him to fire and back him up with their depth in order to restrict Adamstown on their home turf. Zubair Khan was one of mainstays of Quins bowling effort last year and they will need someone to step up and fill the gap left by him.

After last season’s success there will of course be a target on Cork’s key man Hickey’s head on Sunday, Adamstown will no doubt look to their own key man in Prabhanshu Kamal to remove him, if he can do so it will go a long way towards providing Adamstown with a perfect start at this level.

KEY BATTLE – Adam Hickey vs Prabhanshu Kamal

NORTH KILDARE VS CIVIL SERVICE (THE MAWS)

At the Maws we have a blockbuster in store to kick off the 2025 season. Both of these clubs have spent the last 2 seasons in the old ‘Championship’ league structure putting in solid performances and will surely believe that with a fast start to this season, they will be in with a massive shout to gain promotion to the new ‘Premier League’ at the first time of asking.

Civil Service had a tricky 2024 season seeing victory just 3 times across the season, however will undoubtedly take confidence into this weekend in the fact that 2 of those 3 wins came against this very opponent in the league and Alan Murray Cup respectively.

With bat in hand the Phoenix Park side have two main men who North Kildare will want to see the back of to gain an upper hand, in Arjun Chandrasekar and Dhiraj Shetty. Chandrasekar led the charge amassing 353 runs at an average of 32.09 last season and he was ably supported by Shetty with 294 runs at 26.73. From there it was a team effort for Civil Service with no less than 6 players passing 100 runs for the season, they will look for much of the same in 2025 to ensure competitive totals throughout the season.

On the bowling side, Civil Service will miss Asadullah Ahmadzai who led the attack last year with 14 wickets across just 7 matches and Digamber Mishra who accumulated 13 wickets across the season. Vivekanandan Srinivasan (10 wickets at an average of 29 in 2024) will play a key role for Service this season.

As outlined above, North Kildare enter the Vitallity Sports First Team League without their two leading run scorers from 2024 in Abidullah Taniwal and Bakhtyar Nabi. Star man last year was Abidullah Taniwal who amassed 311 runs at 25.92 with a highest score of 111*, he has since moved onto Rush CC. This is compounded by the loss of their second top scorer (Nabi) who scored just under 300 runs last season but has since moved to Cork County for 2025. Nonetheless, the North Kildare batting unit, with 7 players passing 100 runs over the course of the season in 2024 will still feel confident that they can be competitive with the bat.

The Kilcock side will also feel the loss of Nabi with the ball in-hand as he amassed 30 wickets in 2024 at an average of just 13.77 per wicket. He was well supported by Husnain Maroof (19 wkts at 23.63) and Taniwal (16 wkts at 31.13). The home side will be hoping that Maroof can continue his excellent form from last season and lead the attack to success in 2025.

After losing their two highest output players with the bat from 2024 in the off-season, North Kildare will no doubt be relying on the experience of Josh Uddin to help them post a competitive total this weekend. For Civil Service, Srinivasan is the player most likely to prevent that from happening.

Whatever the outcome, this promises to be an intriguing battle as both sides look to start strongly.

KEY BATTLE – Josh Uddin vs Vivekanandan Srinivasan

VITALLITY SPORTS FIRST TEAM LEAGUE

ROUND 1 - APRIL 27TH, 12 NOON STARTS

In Airlie Park, Adamstown vs Cork Harlequins

In The Maws, North Kildare vs Civil Service