There is much discussion in business today of disruptive technologies. One has only to think of the impact of the smart phone on Nokia and Motorola, of Uber on the taxi business or Airbnb on the hotel industry. For cricket the equivalent is probably the T20 format of the game.
Perhaps an example of this took place this week in the re-fixed games in the RCD! and RCD2. In all three games lower ranked side came out on top. With a whole series of further re-fixes to come it will be interesting to see whether the same disruption will continue.
For those who missed the results, the leaders Clontarf came unstuck against North County in a relatively low scoring game in which only one player managed it into the 30s. The key contribution in the game was probably the 3/13 in four overs from Andrew Sheridan which accounted for the Clontarf middle order. In the other game a brilliant century from Simi Singh [the first of two in the T20 format in two days] propelled YMCA to victory over The Hills. In RCD2 a maiden senior half century by Matt Auret was probably the difference between the two sides and gave North Kildare the edge over Malahide.
Moving on to this weekend we have seven league games today [all starting 13.00]
RCD1
Pembroke v YMCA
Clontarf v The Hills
Cork County v Phoenix
North County v Leinster
RCD2
Railway Union v Rush [Oakhill]
Terenure v North Kildare
Balbriggan v Malahide
Although there are several re-fixed matches still to play, today marks the last round in the first cycle of matches in this year’s league campaign. It represents a crucial point in the season as teams turn into the home straight and set their sights either on avoiding relegation or seeking top honours.
Clontarf are the current leaders but have a difficult encounter with one of their likely challenges for the title, The Hills. With both teams losing during the week the match takes on an added importance. The Hills have Hamid Shah back from international duty with Denmark and Clontarf look to be at just about full strength.
The team that is poised to take advantage if Clontarf falter is Phoenix, who travel to the Mardyke. Although few would have seen this before the start of the season, a win today and Phoenix would set them up for a run at the title. On current form Cork do not look like they should be able to prevent this but home advantage is a factor that will weigh in their favour.
In Sydney Parade Pembroke look to be at about full strength for their game v YMCA with Lorcan Tucker and Andrew Balbirnie both back in the side. While there has been no doubting the potency of the Pembroke bowling attack, their batting this year has looked a little fragile. Two additional players in the top order changes this. YMCA will come into the game full of confidence following their first win in the season on Wednesday and the form of Jack Tector and Simi Singh. If YMCA can somehow manage a win they will join Pembroke on two wins and a reasonably comfortable mid-table position. A loss and they are definitely looking over their shoulder at Leinster.
In the final game North County, now lying third in the table, take on Leinster who have George Dockrell back from Trinity. On paper it looks a reasonably even contest despite the different positions in the league table. Again the outcome may well determine how realistic are NC’s title ambitions. A loss for Leinster and they are very much part of the relegation battle.
With neither Dublin University or Merrion in action, the matches in RCD2 this weekend are really about who can put themselves in a position to challenge the leaders for the division title or one of the two promotion spots. Balbriggan have put in some impressive batting performances recently but are they strong enough to contain a Malahide team that until the past week looked in very good form. A crucial game for both teams and especially Malahide who really cannot afford a third loss in a row.
Railway were very unlucky to have weather deny them their first league win of the season v Trinity and basically have to do it all over again v Rush. Rush, for their part, will be looking for greater consistency and to try to string together a few wins. Having Stephen Doheny back this weekend will certainly help. And finally, the surprise team of RCD2 this season, North Kildare can really disrupt things if they can pull off a victory against Terenure. The two teams had the closest of contests recently in the IBI Corporate Finance Senior Cup so there is probably not a lot between the sides. An interesting addition to the Terenure line-up is David Langford-Smith who returns to Terenure after a period in Merrion. He is joined by Jeremy Bray - so no lack of experience in the side.
The teams [as we know them] for today are:
Pembroke: Lawson P [C], Balbirnie A, Balbirnie J, Cutler N, Garth JJ, Hogan D, Hopkins R, Lawson T, Little J, Tucker F, Tucker L.
North County: Eddie Richardson (C), Jamie Grassi (W), Niall McGovern , Andrew Sheridan, Tomás Sheil, Nathan Rooney, Adam Coughlan, Terry Richardson, Cian Mulvaney, Manmeet Singh, Craig May, Conor Sheil.
The Hills: Max Sorensen (C), James Rogan (W), Conor McLoughlin-Gavin, Albert Van der Merwe, Hamid Shah, Ryan Cartwright , Nazeer Shoukat, Tomas Rooney-Murphy, Yaqoob Ali , Rashid Mehraj, Luke Clinton.
YMCA: J Tector [C], T Fisher, S Singh, O Gunning, H Tector, S Murphy, A Lewis, R Jones, J Parkinson, S McCauley, S Streek.
Clontarf: Joe Morrissey [C], David Delany, Declan Gallagher, Bill Coghlan, Waqar Azmat, Sameer Dutt, Andrew Poynter, Conor Kelly, Robert Forrest, John Mooney, Brad Barnes.
Leinster: JP O`Dwyer [C}, C.Mallon, Joe Carroll, G.Delany, A Anwar, I O`Herlihy, J.Brown, B.Azhar, G.Dockrell, P.Byrne, C.Janik.
Phoenix: Nicolaas Pretorius [C/W], Reinhardt Strydom, Richie Lawrence, Rory Anders, Adam Chester
Ari Karvelas, Tom Anders, Ian Anders, Andy Brawders, Gordy Millar, Graham Morris
Balbriggan: D Harper [C], A Harper, C Fletcher, T McGrath, E Ahmed, A Keefe, J Kavanagh, K Ali, M Aziz, F Nasr, C Nulty.
Malahide: A Reynolds [C], J Newland, N Boyne, P Chase, D O'Halloran, SJ De Klerk, K Reynolds, C Riches, F McAllister [W], S Davey, D O'Shea
North Kildare: Neil Vorster(C), Sean Dalton, Josh Uddin (W), Manjeet Singh, Mathew Auret, Tom Satchwell, Robert Neavyn, Paul Ryan, Clint Auret, Ian Walshe, Wasif Ali
Terenure: Conor Mullen (C), David Langford-Smith, Diarmuid Lynch , Dónal Lynch, Givon Christian, Jeremy Bray, Kenny McDonald, Michael Cotter, Mohammad Arshad, Subby Ramnathpur, Yasir Cheema
Rush: Lynal Jansen (C), Neil Rock (W), Saadat (Tipu) Gull, Stephen Doheny, Shahid Iqbal, Sean Monks, Shahrukh Shamim, Allan Eastwood, Aaron McGuire, Alex Neary, Daniel Coffey