Doheny and Anderson see Merrion home

A 216 run partnership between John Anderson [102*] and Stephen Doheny [108*] secured a nine wicket win for the 1^st XI against Malahide in the Premier League. With both teams vying for a place in the finals on 11^th September it was an important result for Merrion.

On an excellent wicket, with a little help for the bowlers but enough pace and bounce to give full value for shots, Malahide batted first and put early pressure on the Merrion bowling attack. With Arjun Muntha in full flow it was difficult to keep control of the run rate and at one stage Malahide looked like posting a 250 plus score. But wickets fell at crucial times and when Muntha was finally out for 99 in the 37^th over Merrion managed to regain the initiative. Excellent spells of bowling from skipper Tom Stanton [3/27] and Amish Sidhu [2/31] kept the final score to 227/10.

Merrion lost Jack Carty in the first over but thereafter the large crowd was witness to a lesson in how to go about chasing down a total. Hitting the balls mainly along the ground Anderson and Doheny kept ahead of the required rate and always looked in control. Anderson deployed his sweep, both orthodox and reverse, to good effect and Doheny played some glorious back and front foot drives through the covers.

In the end, and without a great deal of fuss, the chase concluded successfully in the 45th over.

This was the seventh 200 run partnership for Merrion in senior competitions since 1926 [when the club went senior], fifth highest and the second highest undefeated.

After the game there were questions about when before two Merrion bats had got centuries in the same innings. It happened five times. In 2000, Chris Torrissi [126*] and Brad Spanner [140*] helped Merrion to 315 for 2 against Pembroke in Sydney Parade and later in the season they put on 203 out of a score of 353/5 against Railway Union in Park Avenue [Spanner 204* / Torrissi 103]. The following year the same pair got centuries in matches against Old Belvedere [Spanner 100 / Torrissi 138] and The Hills [Spanner 107 / Torrissi 157*]. And finally, in 2019, Anderson [130] and Dom Joyce [147] put on a partnership of 277 against Leinster in Rathmines.

With two full rounds to play [some teams have three games still to go] Merrion have opened up a sizeable gap at the top of the table. A couple of bonus points from the last two games would mean that they could only be caught by Pembroke or Clontarf. One more win will secure a final spot regardless of other results.