WINS FOR THE HILLS, KNOCKHARLEY & TERENURE IN FIRST TEAM LEAGUE (26.7.2026)

The Hills cemented their place at the top of the IBI Corporate Finance Premier League with a commanding win over Adamstown at Oak Hill. Meanwhile, Knockharley overcame their jitters from last week’s tie with Terenure to overcome a modest 142 target at The Maws as the Meath team maintained their excellent debut season at this level. Terenure completed a solid home win over Quins and in doing so moved to third in the league table albeit that North Kildare has a game in-hand. 

TERENURE BY 4 WICKETS

In Terenure, Quins won the toss and chose to bat first and were immediately vindicated in their decision as Adam Hickey (30) and Callum Stevenson got them off to a solid start. That said, despite managing to accumulate a team score of 240 all out in the 43rd over, there was only one partnership of note for the visitors, Dineth Sumanasinghe and Umer Khan combining to plunder 92 for the sixth wicket in just six overs to change the nature of the game. 

By the time Khan departed for 46, Quins were handily placed at 230/6 with 13 overs remaining. Terenure had other ideas and quickly closed out the last 4 Quins wickets for the addition of just 10 runs – Cork Harlequins 240 all out with 7 over unused. Kripesh Shetty was the most successful bowler for the home side finishing with 4/39 off his 10 overs.

Unfortunately for Terenure, the 6th (Henry Dall) and 7th (Thomas Shand) bowlers used finished with combined figures off 10 overs 103-1 as both suffered an onslaught from Sumanasinghe and Khan. Sumanasinghe was finally dismissed for 90 off 103 balls (9X4s, 5x6s). 

After the innings break, Umer Khan continued where he left off, this time with the ball, as he removed both openers inside the first 6 overs. Adam Hickey then removed the key-man for Terenure, their captain Henry Dall for a breezy 37 to give Dineth Sumanasinghe his second catch of the innings. Terenure were now 70/3 in the 11th over.

Zeeshan Mumtaz and Sid Nair then set about the bowling adding 75 runs off the next 10 overs before Mumtaz was dismissed by Jiju Kalathera for a well-made 50 (7X4, 2X6) and Nair then followed immediately after lbw to the same bowler. Terenure were now 5 down with 94 runs still required for a home win.Bhavic Tukrel (batting at number 7) then assumed responsibility for the Terenure chase guiding his side from a precarious 168/6 tovictory without further loss of wickets. Tukrel was well supported by Kripesh Shetty (20*) who completed an excellent all round performance as the home side secured the win by 4 wickets in the 37th over. Tuckrel finished unbeaten on 53* in an unbroken sixth wicket partnership of 75 with Shetty. 

THE HILLS BY 82 RUNS

Adamstown opted to field first in Oak Hill and got off to a strong start removing both Sherzad brothers inside the first 4 overs. From a perilous 35/3, The Hills innings was transformed by a brilliant 101 off just 61 balls from Nathan Rooney who was at his belligerent best striking 14X4s and 4X6s. When Rooney departed, the score was 173/5 in the 34th over. Andy Kavanagh and captain Matthew Weldon then combined very effectively to add a further 88 off the next 14 overs, Kavanagh making 63 and Weldon a very useful 35 off 41 balls. 

Adamstown used 7 bowlers (6 of whom took a wicket) in their efforts to contain The Hills who will have been happy to finish on 305/8 off their allotted overs thanks to some lusty blows at the end from Febin Manoj and Kevin Heuvel.

Angad Bawa got the Adamstown chase off to a flier scoring 41 off just 26 balls before being dismissed in Muzamil Sherzad’s first over. Yaseen Sherzad then got in on the act dismissing Jaivir Singh Obero to leave Adamstown 61/2 in the 10th over. 

Player/coach, Prabhanshu Kamal had opened the innings and he became the third wicket to fall for a solid 28 off 46 balls. Meanwhile overseas pro Prashanth Prabhu Damodaran was building a solid innings as the required rate was continuing to gradually creep up towards 7 runs per over. This scoreboard pressure inevitably resulted in wickets at the other end.

Damodaran completed a run-a-ball 50 in the 27th over by which stage Adamstown had reached 154/5 with Tomas Rooney-Murphy having removed both Niranjan Muthu and Dinesh Antony in the space of 3 overs. Cian After an expensive opening spell, Cian Nulty returned to the attack and immediately took the key wicket of Damodaran for a well-made 65, Adamstown were now 178/6 with 128 runs still required at nearly 8 per over.

Nithin Namburu and Shreyas Rajesh struggled to add just 14 runs in the next six overs as Nulty and Rooney-Murphy applied pressure with tight bowling such that the equation became 101 needed off 11 overs. Namburu became Yaseen Sherzad’s second wicket in the 41st over quickly followed by Arvind Olaganathan and Aryan Adelkar in the 43rd over to the same bowler. Yaseen now had 4/39 as he made light work of the Adamstown tail. Cian Nulty removed last man Imran Siddque second ball as the Adamstown chase petered out on 223 all out in the 44th over. In truth, this game was over as a contest when Nulty removed Damodaran some 12 overs earlier.

With both sides somewhat lacking in penetration with the ball, this was another important win for The Hills men as they continue their pursuit of an immediate return to the Premier League in 2027.

KNOCKHARLEY BY 9 WICKETS

In The Maws, the home side won the toss and elected to bat first. Runs from opener Moize Haider (29) and captain Yash Kalasannavar (41) gave North Kildare a solid start reaching 108/3 in the 24th over. The departure of Kalasannavar precipitated a collapse which saw the home side lose their last 7 wickets for the addition of just 34 runs as the innings subsided to 142 all out with almost 16 overs unused.

Syed Mehdi was best with the ball for Knockharley with 4/26 including the prize wicket of Kalasannavar. Kashif Ali also chipped in with two late wickets as the Kildare innings fell away.

In reply, Knockharley almost immediately lost opener Sayed Zubair however Brandon Kruger and Don Retty then combined very effectively to add an unbeaten 139 runs for the second wicket to give Knockharley a maximum points win. Kruger finished on 78* (11X4, 3X6) whilst Don Retty more than played his part, unbeaten on 46*.