Following their excellent win over North County in Inch [Cricket Leinster Reports] Merrion 1st XI have guaranteed their place in the top half of the Premier League for the second half of the season with a round still to play. Indeed a win against Phoenix next week would see them start off in the top three alongside Pembroke and Balbriggan. With points carried through to the second half of the season every game matters if the challenge for honours is to be maintained.
| Premier League [one round to split] – Unofficial Table | |||||||
| P | W | T | NR | L | BP | Total | |
| Pembroke | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 38 | 198 |
| Balbriggan | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 32 | 192 |
| Merrion | 10 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 28 | 170 |
| Leinster | 10 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 23 | 155.5 |
| Malahide | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 26 | 146 |
| Railway U | 10 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 26 | 118.5 |
| Phoenix | 10 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 25 | 117.5 |
| Clontraf | 10 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 17 | 117 |
| North County | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 20 | 92.5 |
| Civil Service | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 16 | 88.5 |
| Cork County | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 20 | 80 |
| Rush | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 14 | 26.5 |
The competition for the last [6th place] spot in the Premier League for the second part of the season is between Railway Union, Clontarf and Phoenix. Merrion’s game against Phoenix will be one of three crucial encounters, the others being Balbriggan v Clontarf and Railway Union v Malahide. With two points separating the three sides any outcome is possible.
Scorecard for the North County v Merrion game can be found here.
The run chase to overhaul the North County’s total of 286 all out was the third highest ever achieved in Leinster Senior Cricket by Merrion. It is the second successful chase over 200 runs this season and the 29th overall by any club going back to 1926.
Note : It may not be much comfort to North County but they achieved the highest run chase of the season so far, 339/2 against Clontarf in an earlier round of the Premier League. This is the highest run chase in the history of Leinster Senior Cricket.
The top ten Merrion run chases before this year are set out below.
| # | Score | Target | Opposition | Margin | Venue | Competition | Date |
| 1 | 298/9 | 298 | Pembroke | 1 wkt | Sydney Parade | Senior Cup | 21 Jun 2014 |
| 2 | 290/5 | 288 | Clontarf | 5 wkts | Castle Avenue | Senior Cup | 1 Jun 1962 |
| 3 | 284/9 | 282 | Pembroke | 1 wkt | Sydney Parade | Senior Cup | 28 May 2011 |
| 4 | 281/7 | 279 | North County | 3 wkts | The Nevitt | Premier League | 29 Jun 2013 |
| 5 | 267/2 | 264 | The Hills | 8 wkts | Anglesea Road | Premier League | 2 Jun 2014 |
| 6 | 264/6 | 264 | Pembroke | 4 wkts | Sydney Parade | Premier League | 3 Aug 2015 |
| 7 | 262/9 | 262 | YMCA | 1 wkt | Anglesea Road | Premier League | 15 Aug 2015 |
| 8 | 251/4 | 251 | Balbriggan | 6 wkts | Anglesea Road | Senior League/Cup | 4 May 2019 |
| 9 | 244/6 | 243 | Railway Union | 4 wkts | Park Avenue | Championship | 5 Aug 2017 |
| 10 | 243/3 | 237 | Railway Union | 7 wkts | Park Avenue | Premier League | 9 Aug 2025 |
The backbone of the Merrion run chase against North County was provided by Swapnil Modgill whose 132* was his second senior century of the season. With 451 senior runs [excludes Alan Murray T20 and Irish Senior Cup] already under his belt this year, Swapnil need just 90 more to equal his best for a season. If he were to achieve this it would mean that his total runs per season has increased every year since he started playing Senior Cricket in Leinster.