VITALLITY SPORTS FIRST TEAM LEAGUE PREVIEW - MATCH DAY 5 (JUNE 15TH)

After a 1 week hiatus for the National Cup second round which saw Terenure and Adamstown advance to the quarter final stage the Vitallity First Team League is back with a bang. The action this week comes from Airlie Park where Adamstown will take on Civil Service and Terenure where they will play host to Cork Harlequins.

After 4 rounds North Kildare have taken a commanding lead on the league table, they have the bye this week and the chasing pack will no doubt see this round as an opportunity to put them under pressure as we head into June.

The last round of this competition saw a win for North Kildare over Adamstown by 5 wickets, set up by an outstanding spell of 4/27 by Husnain Maroof. Elsewhere Civil Service managed to hold off Terenure on their home patch by a margin of 55 runs, they were indebted to a beautiful hundred by Deepak Jayachandran on that day.

Adamstown vs Civil Service

Adamstown will be looking to bounce back in their league campaign after a tough day out at the last time of asking, they will be buoyed by their 1 wicket win in the National Cup last weekend and will be coming into this fixture confident of taking a win into round 6 on their home turf.

Prabhanshu Kamal and Aditya Gupta will be tasked with getting their side off to a strong start in the powerplay with bat in hand, they will be joined by Siddarth Biju in the top 3 who has already displayed his prowess with the bat in hand on a couple of occasions this season. Their middle order will consist of Yuvraj Shah, Krunal Nagare and Dinesh Antony Kidagan who is in form after holding his team together against North Kildare with a fine 54. The top 7 will be rounded out with the big hitting of Jacob Ullasa Kumar who can be called on if required. Adamstown will be confident in their batting stocks that they have the strength and depth to put a competitive total on the board.

The seamers are led by Nithin Padmaprabhu who has enjoyed an outstanding start to 2025 including 2/18 off his 10 overs against North Kildare on his last outing, he is supported in his department by Deepak Vijayan and Dinesh Antony Kidagan who have both enjoyed success this season. The main man in the spin department is Prabhanshu Kamal who will lead the team through the middle overs with his leg spin and without a doubt be the ‘danger man’ Civil Service batters will have to be on watch for.

Civil Service come into this fixture off the back of a win they will be happy with after Terenure provided them with a few scares along the way. Their batting is led by Deepak Jayachandran who has started this season in scintillating form with 107 in the last round and another 107 in the round preceding that against Cork Harlequins. He will be joined by Kushal Narang and Ankit Gusain in the top 3 who both enjoyed good success last time out at home to Terenure. The middle order will be made up of Dhiraj Shetty, Mubasher Siddique and the big hitting Arjun Chandrasekar, these 3 have all had strong showings this season, the Phoenix Park outfit will be hoping for them to fire this weekend ensuring a strong showing with bat in hand.

As a bowling unit it is very much a team effort for Civil Service with their side often using 7 or 8 bowlers with no fall off in quality. Their seam attack is led by Sunny Malik who is off the back of a pair of ‘4 fors’, he will likely be partnered by Naveed Khan with the new ball and those two will be supported by Mubasher Siddique in the seam department. From a spin perspective Civil Service will look to Roshin Raviprasad and Prasan Shah to provide them with control in the middle overs with the ever present threat of wickets.

Deepak Jayachandran holds the key for Civil Service, he has been in fine form and will be looking for more of the same this week, Adamstown will look to their big quick in Nithin Padmaprabhu to remove him, if he can do so it will go a long way to putting his side on top in what is sure to be a tight contest.

Key Battle – Deepak Jayachandran vs Nithin Padmaprabhu

Terenure vs Cork Harlequins

Terenure come into the fixture somewhat reeling off of the back of two tough losses in which they will have been very happy with their batting efforts. They fell to Civil Service most recently after a very credible batting display in pursuit of a huge 343.

This week Mick Cotter and Gareth Morgan will partner at the top of the order and have both enjoyed strong efforts this season albeit not in the same games. They will be joined in the top 5 by Sid Nair, Thomas Shand and overseas man Hankce Von Rauenstein, Shand is off the back of 63 against Civil Service and will no doubt be feeling confident going into this weekend. Terenure will be hoping for increased output from this trio as they look to get there campaign back on track this weekend. The top 7 will be rounded out with the return of their skipper Donal Lynch who missed out against Civil Service and Kashish Gandhi who made a good start to the season against Adamstown but has not played since.

Their bowling unit will be led by the swing specialist Dylan Cleary, he will likely be partnered by Benjamin Dillon and together the two form a formidable opening duo. They will be joined in the seam department by Kripesh Shetty and possibly the part time option of Thomas Shand. Their spin effort will be led by Jinal Khatri in the absence of their experienced campaigner Tanvir Hasan. The omission of Hasan for this fixture could mean more work for the part time leg spin of overseas man Von Rauenstein as well as Terenure look to restrict Cork through the middle overs.

Cork Harlequins come into this fixture off the back of a very tough start to the season, they currently sit bottom of the table but will be hopeful of a change in fortunes this weekend.

Adam Hickey is their main man at the top of the order and he will be partnered by Shivam Kislay, together the two will look to get their side off to a strong start in the powerplay. The rest of their batting unit will be made up of Sidharth Pushp, Devon Joyce and Dineth Sumanasinghe who the Munster Men will be hoping will lead their batting effort through the middle overs. Cork also have the strong hitting of Kieran O'Reilly to call on at the death should they need it.

With the ball Cork’s attack will be led by Mustak Mardan who has enjoyed some strong showings, he will be partnered by Christian Laubscher with the new ball as the two will look to make inroads into a strong Terenure top order. They will be supported in the seam department by Kieran O’Reily who had a good day out against Civil Service at the last time of asking. They will also have Umer Khan, Sidharth Pushp and Kanishk Kumar to call on through the middle overs at they try to ensure Terenure do not bat their full allotment.

Gareth Morgan is the man in form for Terenure, if Mustak Mardan can remove him he will put his side on top in what is a must win clash for both sides.

Key Battle – Gareth Morgan vs Mustak Mardan